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THE MAGIC SPEECH FLOWER 

OR LITTLE LUKE AND HIS 
ANIMAL FRIENDS 


ONCE-UPON-A-TIME STORIES 


By MELVIN HIX, B. Ped., Principal 
of Public School 9, Long Island City, 
New York City. 


The aim of the author is to retell these familiar 
stories of childhood in such way as to give 
added interest to first and second grade pupils. 

ELEVEN STORIES. ILLUSTRATED. 

105 PAGES. PRICE, 25 CENTS. 


LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO., 

PUBLISHERS 

Fourth Avenue and 30th Street, New York 
LONDON, BOMBAY, AND CALCUTTA 


THE 

MAGIC SPEECH FLOWER 

OR LITTLE LUKE AND HIS 
ANIMAL FRIENDS 


BY 

MELVIN HIX 

AUTHOR OF “ONCE UPON A TIME STORIES,” “UNITED 
STATES HISTORY FOR FIFTH YEAR,” CO-AUTHOR 
OF “ THE HORACE MANN READERS,” ETC. 


ILLUSTRATED 



LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO. 

FOURTH AVENUE & 30 TH STREET, NEW YORK 
LONDON, BOMBAY, AND CALCUTTA 



COPYRIGHT, 1912, BY 
LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO. 

FIRST PUBLISHED, OCTOBER, 1912 




THE* PLIMPTON* PRESS 
[ W * D * O ] 

NORWOOD • MASS * U * S * A 


©CU328303 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER PAGE 

I. The Finding of the Magic Flower 1 

II. Little Luke and the Bob Lincolns 21 

III. The Story of the Summer Land 24 

IV. Bob Lincoln’s Story of His Own Life 33 

V. Little Luke Makes Friends among the Wild Folk. . 37 

VI. Little Luke and Kit-chee the Great Crested 

Flycatcher 42 

VII. Why the Kit-chee People always use Snake-skins 

in Nest-building 46 

VIII. Little Luke and Nick-uts the Yellowthroat .... 49 

IX. Why Mother Mo-lo the Cowbird Lays Her Eggs 

in other Birds’ Nests 53 

X. The Story of O-pee-chee the First Robin 58 

XI. How the Robin’s Breast became Red 63 

XII. How the Bees got Their Stings 68 

XIII. The Story of the First Swallows 73 

XIV. Little Luke and A-bal-ka the Chipmunk 79’ 

XV. How A-bal-ka got His Black Stripes 85 

XVI. How A-bal-ka the Chipmunk Helped Men 93 

XVII. Little Luke and Mee-ko the Red Squirrel 97 

XVIII. The Story of the First Red Squirrels 101 

XIX. How the Red Squirrel Became Small 104 

XX. Little Luke and Mother Mit-chee the Ruffled 

Partridge 109 

XXI. Why the Feathered Folk Raise Their Heads when 

They Drink 118 


VI 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER PAGE 

XXII. Little Luke and Father Mit-chee 120 

XXIII. The Story of the First Partridge 123 

XXIV. Why Partridges Drum 129 

XXV. Mother Wa-poose and Old Boze the Hound 133 

XXVI. Mother Wa-poose and Old Klaws the House Cat 141 

XXVII. The Rabbit Dance 144 

XXVIII. Why the Wild Fold no longer Talk the Man-talk 151 

XXIX. The Tale of Sun-ka the Wise Dog 155 

XXX. How the Dog’s Tongue became Long 160 

XXXI. The Story of the Faithful Dog 168 


THE MAGIC SPEECH FLOWER 


I. THE FINDING OF THE MAGIC FLOWER 

It was June and it was morning. The sky was 
clear and the sun shone bright and warm. The 
still air was filled with the sweet odor of blossom- 
ing flowers. To little Luke, sitting on the door- 
step of the farmhouse and looking out over the 
fresh fields and green meadows, the whole earth 
seemed brimful of happiness and joy. 

From the bough of an apple tree on the lawn 
O-pee-chee the Robin chanted his morning song. 
“Te rill, te roo, the sky is blue,” sang he. 

From the lilac bush Kil-loo the Song Sparrow 
trilled, “ Sweet, sweet, sweet, sweet, the air is 
sweet.” 

Over in the meadows Zeet the Lark fluttered 
down upon a low bush and sang, “Come with me, 
come and see,” over and over. Then he dropped 
down into the grass and ran off to the nest where 
his mate was sitting on five speckled eggs. 


2 THE MAGIC SPEECH. FLOWER 

Bob-o’-Lincoln went quite out of his wits with 
the joy of life. He flew high up into the air, and 
then came fluttering and falling, falling and quiv- 
ering, down among the buttercups and daisies. 
He was very proud of himself and wanted every- 
body to know just who he was. So he sang his 
own name over and over. With his name-song 
he mixed up a lot of runs and trills and thrills 
that did not mean anything to anybody but him- 
self and his little mate nestling below him in the 
grass. To her they meant, “Life is love, and 
love is joy.” 

Old Ka-ka-go the Crow, sitting on the top of 
the tall maple, felt that on such a morning as 
this he, too, must sing. So he opened his beak 
and croaked, “Caw, caw, caw, caw.” What he 
meant to say was, “Corn, corn, corn, corn.” 
Sam, the hired man, heard him and came out of 
the barn door with his gun. Old Ka-ka-go spread 
his black wings and flapped off to the woods on 
the side of the mountain. 

Far up in the blue sky Kee-you the Bed- 
shouldered Hawk wheeled slowly about in great 
circles. When he saw Sam with his gun, he 


THE FINDING OF THE MAGIC FLOWER 3 

screamed, “ Kee-you, kee-you, kee-you,” over and 
over. 

That was a poor song, but a good war cry. It 
sent every singer plunging to cover. O-pee-chee 
the Robin hid himself among the thick branches 
of the apple tree. Kil-loo the Song Sparrow 
hopped into the thickest part of the lilac bush. 
Zeet the Lark and Bob Lincoln squatted in the 
thick grass. Not a bird note was to be heard. 

But Ka-be-yun the West Wind was not afraid 
of the warrior hawk. He breathed softly among 
the branches of the trees and set every little leaf 
quivering and whispering. Then he ran across 
the meadows and the wheat fields. As he sped 
along, great waves like those of the sea rolled in 
wide sweeps across the meadow and through the 
tall wheat. 

To little Luke it seemed as if the leaves and 
grass and wheat all whispered, “Come away. 
Come and play.” Just then a great bumblebee 
flew by and now the call was clear. “ Come 
away, come away ! F ollow, follow, follow me ! ” 

The boy jumped up and ran down the path into 
the garden. There he met Old Klaws the House 


4 


THE MAGIC SPEECH FLOWER 


Cat, with a little brown baby rabbit in his 
mouth. “ You wicked old cat,” said little Luke, 
“drop it, drop it, I say.” But Old Klaws only 
growled and gripped the little rabbit tighter. 
Little Luke seized the old cat by the back of the 
neck and choked him till he let go. The little 
brown rabbit looked up at him with his big 
round eyes, as much as to say, “ Thank you, little 
boy, thank you.” Then he hopped off into the 
thicket of berry bushes, where Old Klaws could 
not catch him again. 

Little Luke went on down the path, through 
the garden gate, and into the meadow beyond. 
All at once Bob Lincoln sprang up out of the 
grass right before his feet. 

Little Luke thought he would find Bob Lin- 
coln’s nest. So he got down upon his knees and 
began to look about in the grass very carefully. 
He did not find the nest, but he did find a fine 
cluster of ripe, wild strawberries. He forgot all 
about the nest and began to pick and eat the 
sweet berries. So he ate and ate till his lips and 
fingers were red as red wine and smelled strongly 
of ripe strawberries. 


THE FINDING OF THE MAGIC FLOWER 5 

Suddenly, as he put out his hand for another 
cluster, up sprang a black and brown and yellow 
bird. That was Mrs. Bob Lincoln. Little Luke 
put aside the grass and there was the nest. It 
was so cunningly hidden that he could never have 
found it by looking for it. 

Mr. and Mrs. Bob Lincoln were greatly fright- 
ened. They fluttered and quivered about, and 
talked to each other, and scolded at the boy. 
Little Luke could not understand what they said, 
but part of it sounded like, “ Let it be ! Don’t 
touch, don’t touch ! Go away, please, p-l-e-a-s-e, 
go away.” So he got up and said, “All right, 
don’t be afraid. I’ll not take your eggs, I’ll go 
right away.” And so he did. 

When he had gone two or three rods, Mrs. Bob 
Lincoln fluttered down to her nest and settled 
herself quietly over her eggs. But Mr. Bob flew 
to a tall weed in front of little Luke. There he 
sat and swung and teetered and sang his merriest 
song. To the little boy it seemed as if he was 
trying to say, “ Thank you, thank you, little 
boy.” 

There was an old apple tree standing near the 


6 THE MAGIC SPEECH FLOWER 

meadow fence. On one of its branches was the 
nest of 0-pee-cliee the Robin. Both Mr. and 
Mrs. 0-pee-cliee had gone away to pick worms 
from the soft, fresh earth in the garden. 

As little Luke drew near to the tree, he saw 
Mee-ko the Red Squirrel crouching by the side of 
the nest with a blue egg in his front paws. He 
had not yet broken the shell when he saw little 
Luke. At first he thought he would run away. 
But he wanted that egg ; so he squatted very 
quietly where he was and hoped the little boy 
would not see him. 

But little Luke’s eyes were very keen. He saw 
Mee-ko and guessed what he was about. So he 
picked up a small round stone and threw it at 
the robber squirrel. His aim was so true that 
the stone flicked Mee-ko’s tail where it curled 
over his shoulders. 

Mee-ko was so scared that he dropped the egg 
back into the nest and ran along the branch and 
across to another. From the end of that he 
dropped down to the fence and scampered along 
the rails up toward the woods on the side of the 
mountain. 


THE FINDING OF THE MAGIC FLOWER 7 

He went all the faster because Father O-pee- 
chee flew down into the branches of the apple 
tree just as little Luke threw the stone. He 
saw Mee-ko and understood exactly what had 
happened. He flew a little way after the thiev- 
ing squirrel. Then he came back and lit on the 
highest branch of the apple tree and began to 
sing. “ Te rill, te roo, I thank you ; te rill, te 
roo, I thank you,” the little boy thought he said. 

Little Luke went over to the fence. In a bush 
beside the fence there was a big spider’s web. 
Old Mrs. Ik-to the Black Spider had built the 
web as a trap to catch flies in. But this time 
there was something besides a fly in the trap. 
Ah-mo the Honey Bee had blundered into the 
web and was trying hard to get away. 

Old Mrs. Ik-to was greatly excited. She was 
not sure whether she wanted bee meat for dinner 
or not. She knew very well that bees are stronger 
than flies and that they carry a dreadful spear 
with a poisoned point. 

Mrs. Ik-to ran down her web a little way, then 
she stopped and shook it. Ah-mo the Honey Bee 
was not so much entangled by the web that he 


8 THE MAGIC SPEECH FLOWER 

could not sting and the old spider knew that. So 

she ran back again to one corner of the web. 

Little Luke stood and watched poor Ah-mo for 
a moment. Then he took a twig from the bush 
and set him free. Ah-mo rubbed himself all over 
with his legs and tried his wings carefully to see 
if they were sound. Then he flew up from the 
ground and buzzed three times round little Luke’s 
head. 

The little boy was not afraid. He knew that 
bees never sting anyone who does not hurt or 
frighten them, and besides, he thought the buzzing 
had a friendly sound to it. It seemed to him as 
if Ah-mo was trying to say, “ Thank you, little 
boy, thank you,” as well as he could. 

When Ah-mo had flown away, little Luke 
looked around to see what old Mrs. Ik-to was 
doing, but he could not find her. 

Leaving the old spider to mend her web 
as well as she could, little Luke got over the 
fence into the pasture. As he was going along 
he heard Mrs. Chee-wink making a great out- 
cry. She was flying about a little bushy fir 
tree not bigger than a currant bush. “ Chee- 


THE FINDING OF THE MAGIC FLOWER 


9 


And so she was. 



wink, to-whee ; chee-wink, to-whee ! ” she called. 
Little Luke thought she was saying, “Help! 
Help ! Come here, come here ! ” 

He went up toward the fir 
bush. As he walked along, he 
picked up a stout stick that was 
lying on the ground. When 
he came to the bush, Mrs. 

Chee-wink flew off to a tall 
sapling near by and watched 
him without saying a word. 

At first he could not see anything to disturb 
anybody. But he knew that Mrs. Chee-wink 
would never have made all that fuss for noth- 
ing. So he took hold of the fir bush and pulled 
the branches apart. Then he understood. He 
had almost put his hand on A-tos-sa the Big 
Blacksnake. 

A-tos-sa had a half-grown bird by the wing and 
was trying to swallow it. The young bird was 
strong enough to flutter a good deal and Mother 
Chee-wink had flapped her wings in the snake’s 
eyes and pecked his head, so that he had not been 
able to get a good hold. 



10 THE MAGIC SPEECH FLOWER 

Little Luke struck at once. The stick hit the 
snake and he let go of the bird and slid down 
to the ground. Little Luke hit him again, this 
time squarely on the head. Then with a stone 
he made sure that A-tos-sa would never try to eat 
young birds again. 

After he had finished with the snake, he picked 
up the young bird which had fallen to the ground. 
It seemed more scared than hurt, so he put it 
carefully into the nest, where there were two other 
young birds. Then he went on up toward the 
woods. 

Mrs. Chee-wink flew back to the fir bush. She 
looked first at the dead snake and then at her 
nest. Then she said, “ Chee-wink, chee-wink, 
to-whee, chee-wink, to-whee,” two or three times 
very softly and settled down quietly on her nest. 
Of course that meant, “ Thank you, little boy, 
thank you ! ” 

Up above the fir bush in the pasture stood an 
old apple tree, all alone by itself. On a dead 
branch was Ya-rup the Flicker. He was using 
the hard shell of the dead branch for a drum. 
“ Rat, a tat, tat/’ he went faster and faster, till the 


THE FINDING OF THE MAGIC FLOWER 11 
beats ran into one long resounding roll. Then he 
stopped and screamed, “ Kee-yer, kee-yer ! ” Per- 
haps he meant, “ Well done! good boy! good boy!’’ 

You see he had seen little Luke’s battle with 
the blacksnake and was drumming and screaming 
for joy. Little Luke stopped under the old apple 
tree and listened to Ya-rup’s drumming and 
screaming for a while. Then he went on up to 
the edge of the big woods. 

There he found an old trail which he followed 
a long way till it forked. Right in the fork of 
the trail, he saw a young bird. Its feathers were 
not half grown and of course it could not fly. 
Little Luke knew that it must have fallen out 
of the nest by accident. So he ran after the 
frightened little bird and picked it up very care- 
fully. Just then O-loo-la the Wood Thrush flew 
down into a bush by the side of the trail and 
began to plead, “ Pit'y ! pit'y ! don’t hurt him ! 
Let him go, little boy; please let him go!” he 
seemed to say. 

Little Luke looked around for the nest. Soon 
he saw it in a tangle of vines that ran over a 
dogwood bush. 


12 THE MAGIC SPEECH FLOWER 

Very carefully he picked his way through the 
bushes toward the nest. O-loo-la seemed to guess 
what he meant to do and hopped from bush to 
bush without saying a word. 

When the little boy went to put the young bird 
back into the nest, he saw why he had fallen out. 
There were three young birds in it, and they filled 
it so full that there was scarcely room for another. 
Little Luke saw that the bird he held was smaller 
than the others. So he took one of them out and 
put his bird down into the middle of the nest. 
Then he put the bigger one back. When this 
one snuggled down into the nest, it was quite 
full. 

When little Luke went back into the trail, 
O-loo-la flew to a branch over his head and began 
to sing very happily. The little boy thought 
that he, too, was trying to say, “ Thank you, little 
boy, thank you.” 

Little Luke took the left-hand trail and followed 
it till he came to a beautiful spring which gushed 
from under a tall rock. He lay down upon his 
stomach and took a long drink of the cool, sweet 
water. 


THE FINDING OF THE MAGIC FLOWER 13 

Just beside tlie spring stood a big beech tree. 
Near the ground two large roots spread out at a 
broad angle. Little Luke sat down between the 
roots and leaned his head against the tree. It 
was a very comfortable seat. So he sat there and 
dreamed with his eyes wide open. Just what he 
was dreaming about he did not know. He only 
knew that he felt very happy and very quiet. 

Mee-ko the Red Squirrel ran out upon a branch 
just over his head and peeked and peered at him 
with his bright, inquisitive eyes. As little Luke 
sat very still, Mee-ko cocked his long tail up over 
his shoulders and sat and watched him. 

Little Luke felt so very comfortable and quiet 
that he closed his eyes for a moment. At least 
it seemed only a moment to him. All at once he 
heard a loud hum. He opened his eyes and there 
was Ah-mo the Honey Bee just before his face. 
When Ah-mo saw that little Luke was watching 
him, he flew down toward the spring and lit upon 
a beautiful flower. 

Little Luke was surprised ; he had not seen that 
flower before. It was a very beautiful flower. 
He leaned over and looked at it. Its petals were 


14 THE MAGIC SPEECH FLOWER 

blue as the sky, except near the heart, where they 
were pink as a baby’s fingers; and its heart was 
as yellow as gold. 

Little Lnke reached out his hand to pick the 
strange flower. As soon as Mee-ko saw what he 
was doing, he fairly screamed. To little Luke it 
seemed as if he said, “Stop, stop, let it be. Leave 
it alone. Go away.” 

Little Luke was used to Mee-ko’s scolding. He 
had heard it many times before, but never before 
had he thought there was any sense in it. It 
seemed very queer to him that he could under- 
stand the speech of a squirrel. 

In his surprise he forgot about the strange 
flower and sat looking up at Mee-ko. At once 
Mee-ko became quiet. He ran along the branch 
and down the tree behind little Luke. Then he 
leaped to the ground and ran across to another 
tree. When he thought he was safe, he began to 
talk and scold again. To the little boy it seemed 
as if Mee-ko was saying, “Come here, come away, 
follow me, follow me ! ” 

But little Luke did not care to chase Mee-ko. 
He knew he could not catch him, and besides, he 


THE FINDING OF THE MAGIC FLOWER 15 
wanted the strange flower. As soon as he reached 
out his hand for it again, Mee-ko began to scold 
more angrily than before. “ Stop, let it alone, go 
away,” he screamed. 

“That is queer,” thought little Luke; “I wonder 
what is the matter with him. What can he care 
about the strange flower ? ” 

Just then Ah-mo the Honey Bee flew up toward 
little Luke and then back again to the flower. 
Little Luke reached over and seized the flower. 
The stem was strong and he pulled it up, root and 
all. He put it to his nose. Its odor was strangely 
sweet. From the broken stem some clear juice 
oozed out upon his hand. Ah-mo the Honey Bee 
flew r down and sipped it. Then he rose and began 
to buzz around little Luke’s head. Without think- 
ing, the little boy put his hand to his lips and his 
mouth was filled with a strange, sweet taste. At 
the same time a mist rose before his eyes, a 
strange feeling ran through his body, and his head 
swam. 

In a moment the strange feeling passed away 
and the mist cleared from before his face. He 
looked up and could scarcely believe his eyes. 


16 


THE MAGIC SPEECH FLOWER 


There in a half circle around him sat a strange 
company — the strangest he had ever seen. 

There was Mo-neen the Woodchuck, Unk-wunk 
the Hedgehog, A-pe-ka the Polecat, Wa-poose the 
Rabbit, A-bal-ka the Chipmunk, Tav-wots the 
Cottontail, Mic-ka the Coon, and Shin-ga the Gray 
Squirrel. At one end of the line stood Mit- 
chee the Partridge, Ko-leen-o the Quail, and 
O-he-la the Woodcock. On the branches above 
them were Ya-rup the Flicker, O-pee-chee the 
Robin, O-loo-la the Wood Thrush, Har-por the 
Brown Thrasher, Cliee-wink the Ground Robin, 
Tur-wee the Bluebird, Zeet the Lark, and Bob 
Lincoln. Little Luke was surprised to see the 
last two, for he had never seen them in the woods 
before. 

“What can have happened to me?” said little 
Luke aloud. All the creatures in that strange 
assembly stirred slightly and looked at Wa-poose 
the big Rabbit. Wa-poose hopped forward a step 
or two and stood up on his hind legs. Plis ears 
were stretched straight up over his head, his paws 
were crossed in front of him, and he looked very 
queer. 



The Magic Speech Flower 






18 


THE MAGIC SPEECH FLOWER 


Then to little Luke’s surprise, he spoke. “ Man 
Cub,” said Wa-poose, “a wonderful thing has 
happened to you. You have found the Magic 
Speech Flower and tasted its blood. By its 
power you are able to understand the speech of 
all the wild folk of field and forest. This great 
gift has come to you because your heart has been 
full of loving kindness toward all the creatures 
that the Master of Life has made. 

“ Only he can find the Magic Flower who, 
between the rising and the setting of the sun, has 
done five deeds of mercy and kindness toward the 
wild folk of forest and field. These five deeds 
you have done.” 

Wa-poose paused. For a moment there was 
silence. All the wild folk looked steadfastly at 
the little boy, who in turn gazed at them with 
wonder-filled eyes. Then he spoke. “Five deeds! 
What five deeds have I done ? ” he asked, forget- 
ting all about his morning’s work. 

“ This morning you saved my child from the 
fierce jaws of Klaws the House Cat. You drove 
off Mee-ko the thieving Bed Squirrel when he 
was trying to steal the eggs from the nest of 


THE FINDING OF THE MAGIC FLOWER 19 
O-pee-chee. You helped Ah-mo escape from the 
trap of wicked old Ik-to. You saved Chee- wink’s 
fledglings from the cruel fangs of A-tos-sa, and 
you put the young one back into O-loo-la’s nest 
safely. 

“ Two things you must remember if you wish 
to keep this magic power. You must never need- 
lessly or in sport hurt or kill any of the wild crea- 
tures that the Master of Life has made and you 
must tell no one what has happened to you. If 
you give heed to these two things, we will all be 
your friends. When you walk abroad, you shall 
see us when no one else can, and we will talk with 
you and teach you all the wisdom and the ways 
of the wild kindreds.” 

Just then the sound of footsteps was heard 
coming down the trail. The gray mist rose again 
before little Luke’s eyes and he heard someone 
say, “Wake up, little boy, it is almost noon. 
Your Aunt Martha will have dinner on the table 
before you can get back to the farmhouse.” 

Little Luke looked up and there was Old John 
the Indian, who lived in a lonely cabin on the 
other side of the mountain, and sometimes came 


20 THE MAGIC SPEECH FLOWER 

to the farmhouse to sell game he had killed or 

baskets that he had woven. 

Little Luke sprang up and rubbed his eyes. 
Not one of the wild folk was to be seen. But he 
held in his hand a broken and crumpled flower. 
He put the flower into his pocket and went along 
down the trail toward the farmhouse with Old 
J ohn. 



II. LITTLE LUKE AND THE BOB LINCOLNS 

That night little Luke dreamed of the Magic 
Flower. The next morning, as soon as he had fin- 
ished his breakfast, he ran down through the 
garden and into the meadow. He was eager to 
see his wild friends again and to try his new 
gifts. “ Perhaps,” he thought, “it was only a 
dream after all.” 

As soon as Bob Lincoln saw him, he came fly- 
ing across the meadow to meet him, his black and 
white uniform gleaming in the bright sunlight. 
“Good morning, little boy, good morning,” he 
trilled, and his voice sounded like the tinkling of 
a silver bell. 

“ Good morning, Bob Lincoln,” said the little 
boy, delighted that he really could understand Bob 


22 THE MAGIC SPEECH FLOWER 

Lincoln’s language. “ How is Mrs. Bob Lincoln 
this morning?” 

“ Come and see, come and see,” trilled Bob Lin- 
coln, in his sweetest and friendliest voice. 

Little Luke walked over to the nest. When 
she heard him coming, Mrs. Bob Lincoln was 
scared and flew up from the nest. 

But as soon as she saw who it was, she fluttered 
down upon the top of a tall weed and said, “ Oh, 
it’s you, is it, little boy? I heard someone com- 
ing and I was frightened, but I am not afraid of 
you.” And so she sat swinging and teetering on 
the tall weed. 

The little boy looked at the nest and admired 
the pretty eggs. “ Oh, they’re coming on finely,” 
said Mrs. Bob Lincoln. “ In a day or two I will 
show you five of the handsomest baby Bob 
Lincolns you will ever see. I heard them peep- 
ing inside of the shells this morning.” 

The little boy looked at the father and mother 
birds. “ Bob Lincoln,” said he, “ I wish you 
would tell me why you and Mrs. Bob Lincoln 
are so unlike. Your coat is white and black; 
her dress is black and brown and yellow. You 


LITTLE LUKE AND THE BOB LINCOLNS 23 
do not look as if you belonged to the same 
family.” 

“Well,” said Bob Lincoln, “that is a long 
story.” 

“ Oh, please tell it,” said little Luke ; “ I want 
so much to hear it.” 

“Well,” said Bob Lincoln, “we have both had 
our breakfast and I have sung my morning song. 
So if Mrs. Bob will excuse me [Mrs. Bob grace- 
fully bowed her permission] I will take the time. 
You go over there and sit down under the old 
apple tree and I will come and find a comfortable 
twig and tell you all about it.” 

When little Luke had seated himself cozily 
with his back against the trunk of the old apple 
tree, Bob Lincoln began his story. 


III. THE STORY OF THE SUMMER LAND 


“ Long, long ago when the world was new,” 
said he, “the first Bob Lincoln family lived in a 
beautiful country in the distant north. In that 
country it was always summer. None of those 
who dwelt in that land knew what winter was. 

“Ke-honk-a the Gray Goose, who spent half 
the year in northern Greenland, had mentioned it, 
but the people of the Summer Land did not under- 
stand him. They had never felt the cold north 
winds or seen ice or snow. 

“But there came a time when Ke-honk-a said, 
as he flew over, ‘Winter is coming, winter is com- 
ing.’ But nobody understood and nobody cared. 
Why should they care about winter when they 
did not know what it was ? 

“ Soon after this the people of the Summer 
Land noticed a change in the weather. One half 
of the year was cooler than the other half. The 
first time this happened they did not mind it at 


THE STORY OF THE SUMMER LAND 25 

all. Indeed, they rather liked it. It was pleas- 
ant to have a change. 

“ The next year it was cooler and the next still 
cooler. And so it went on for some years, each 
winter getting colder than that which had gone 
before. 

“ One day a dull, gray cloud came up out of 
the north and hid the face of the sun. Out of its 
gray bosom there came floating to earth a whole 
flock of big, white snowflakes. The people of the 
Summer Land were amazed. * 

“ As the great flakes came wavering lazily down 
through the air, they looked at them and thought 
that they must be some new kind of winged crea- 
tures. ‘ What a lot of them/ thought they, 

‘ there must be to make that great cloud which 
hides the sun!’ 

“ In a short time the sun shone out from behind 
the gray cloud. In the twinkling of an eye all 
the snowflakes were gone. ‘ Strange, strange ! ’ 
thought the people of the Summer Land. ‘What 
has become of all those white-winged creatures ? ’ 

“ The next winter so many snowflakes fell that 
they hid the brown earth for many weeks. This 


26 THE MAGIC SPEECH FLOWER 

happened again and again, and the people of the 
Summer Land began to understand what winter 
was. The snow became so deep for months at a 
time that they found it hard to get food. 

“ After a while life became so hard for them 
that they felt that something must be done. So 
they summoned a Great Council to consider the 
matter. After much talk they decided to send a 
messenger to the Master of Life, who lived far 
away among the western mountains, to beg him 
to come and help them. For their messenger 
they chose the swallow, the swiftest of all 
the birds. 

“ The swallow flew for many days, until at last 
he reached the lodge of the Master of Life, and 
told his story. 

“ ‘ Go back/ said the Master when he had heard 
it, ‘ and after four moons I will come to visit you. 
Summon all the people of the Summer Land to 
a Great Council and I will tell them what they 
must do/ 

“ At the time appointed, the Master of Life 
came. When all the people of the Summer Land 
had assembled, he spoke to them and said, ‘ I have 


THE STORY OF THE SUMMER LAND 27 

heard of your troubles and have thought of a plan 
to help you. 

“ ‘ Henceforth, so long as the world shall last, 
there shall be summer and winter in this land. 
Half the year shall be summer and half the year 
shall be winter. 

“ ‘ While summer reigns, this is a pleasant land, 
and you may live here and find plenty of food. 
Before winter comes, you must leave this land and 
journey far away to the south, to another country 
where summer always reigns. But when the snow 
melts and winter returns to his home in the dis- 
tant north, summer shall come again to this land, 
and so it shall be every year. 

“ ‘ When summer comes back, you may return 
with it and dwell in your own home until it is time 
for the return of winter.’ 

“ When the people of the Summer Land heard 
this, some were glad, some were sorry, and some 
were angry. 

“ ‘ What ! ’ said the angry ones, ‘ shall we leave 
our pleasant homes on account of winter? No, 
indeed; we will stay.’ And so they did. 

“When summer was over and the cold winds 


28 THE MAGIC SPEECH FLOWER 

began to blow, the Bob Lincoln family, obeying 

the command of the Master of Life, set out for the 

Southland. On and on they traveled for many 

days. 

“ At last they came to the end of the land, and 
before them was the great, salt sea. But far on 
to the southward, they could dimly see islands 
rising out of the salt water. 

“ So they flew bravely on across the great, salt 
sea, till they reached the islands ; and beyond 
these islands they saw others. On and on they 
flew from island to island until they reached an- 
other great land like the home they had left 
behind them. In it there were vast meadows 
and forests, mountains and rivers. In that land 
it is always summer and food is plenty all the year 
round. There in the pleasant meadows, the Bob 
Lincolns stopped and there they lived happily for 
half a year. 

“When it was time for summer to revisit the 
Summer Land, the Bob Lincolns returned also 
and this they did every year. 

“ In those days all the Bob Lincolns wore black 
and white clothes like mine. But, as you see, 


THE STORY OF THE SUMMER LAND 29 

this black and white dress is very con-spic'-u- 
ous. 

“Now it happened that in their journeyings to 
and fro, the Bob Lincolns met many enemies, and 
these enemies wrought sad havoc in their ranks. 
When they were flying in the air, the hawks and 
the eagles would swoop upon them and kill them. 
If they sat upon the ground, the weazels and the 
minks, the wildcats and other four-footed prowlers, 
would pounce upon them and devour them. Even 
the Bed Men, with their feathered arrows, would 
shoot them. So many of them were killed that 
they began to fear that soon none of their family 
would be left alive. 

“ So they called a family council, to consider 
their sad state and decide what it was best to do. 
When they were all assembled together, they 
talked the matter over and decided to go and ask 
aid from the Master of Life. 

“ ‘ I have heard your complaint/ said the 
Master of Life when they had finished, ‘ and I am 
willing to assist you. But first you must under- 
stand that the cause of all your trouble is your 
love of fine clothes. Your black and white 


30 THE MAGIC SPEECH FLOWER 

uniforms are very beautiful, but they are too 
con-spic'-u-ous for your safety. By day your ene- 
mies can spy you afar because you are black; by 
night they can see you because you are white. 

“ ‘ Hereafter you shall wear different clothing. 
No longer shall your feathers be black and white; 
they shall be black and brown and yellow. 
When you sit upon the ground you shall look like 
the dry, brown grass, and when you fly through 
the air your enemies shall not be able to mark 
your flight from a distance. Thus it shall come 
to pass that, if you act wisely, you shall live in 
peace and safety.’ 

“ When they heard this the Bob Lincolns were 
grieved at heart. They loved their gay black and 
white uniforms and sorrowed at the thought of 
parting with them. So they humbly begged the 
Master of Life to let them keep their gay clothing 
and tell them some other way of escaping their 
enemies. 

“ ‘ There is no other way,’ said he. ‘ But tell 
me, when do you suffer least from your enemies'? 
Is it when you are dwelling in your old northern 
home, or when you are dwelling in the sunny 


THE STORY OF THE SUMMER LAND 31 

Southland ? ’ ‘ When we are dwelling in our old 

homes/ answered the Bob Lincolns. 

“‘Very well, then/ said the Master of Life, 
‘ while you are dwelling in your old home, all the 
male Bob Lincolns may wear their black and 
white garments. Nevertheless they shall suffer 
for their vanity, for their enemies shall find and 
slay many of them. 

“ ‘ But your wives and sisters must be content 
with a quieter dress. It is they who have the 
most to do with tending your nests and rearing 
your young ones. If they should wear your gay 
black and white garments, your enemies would 
find and kill you all, and the Bob Lincoln family 
would perish from the earth.’ 

“ That is the story/’ said Bob Lincoln, “ that 
my grandfather told me long ago in our distant 
winter home in the Southland. If you keep watch, 
little boy, for a month or so, you will see me put 
off my black and white suit for one just like Mrs. 
Bob Lincoln’s. Then you will know that we are 
getting ready for our journey to our distant winter 
home in the sunny Southland, far away across the 
great, salt sea.” 


32 


THE MAGIC SPEECH FLOWER 


“ Now,” said Bob Lincoln, when lie had finished 
his story, “ it’s time for me to be off* to see how 
Mrs. Bob Lincoln is getting along.” 

And off he flew before little Luke had time to 
thank him for his pleasant story. The little boy 
sat quietly for a while under the old apple tree. 
Then he got up and went slowly back to the 
house. 


IV. BOB LINCOLN’S STORY OF HIS OWN LIFE 


During the long summer days little Luke went 
often to visit the Bob Lincolns. The more he 
watched them, the more he grew to love them. 
Bob Lincoln himself was the merriest, j oiliest 
fellow of all the little boy’s feathered friends. 

Little Luke saw the baby birds as soon as they 
had broken their shells. He watched the anxious 
parents feed them. And how those young Bob 
Lincolns could eat ! How their busy parents had 
to work to support the little family! Back and 
forth over the meadow the old birds flew hour 
after hour, searching for food for their hungry 
babies. And they were always hungry ! When- 
ever they heard anyone coming, they would close 
their eyes, stretch their long necks, and open wide 
their yellow mouths. 

The young birds grew larger and hungrier 
every day. And every day Bob Lincoln became 
busier and quieter. Little Luke noticed that the 


34 THE MAGIC SPEECH FLOWER 

jolly little fellow did not sing so much and that 
his gay coat was becoming rusty. One by one 
his bright feathers fell out and dull brown or 
yellow ones took their place, until at last he 
looked just like his little wife. 

“ Well, little boy,” said Bob Lincoln one morn- 
ing, “ we must be getting ready to move. These 
youngsters can fly pretty well, and it is time for us 
to go. I am sorry, for I love our meadow home, 
and a long and dangerous journey is before us.” 

“ Tell me about it,” said little Luke. 

“Well,” said Bob Lincoln, “you must know 
that I was hatched in this very meadow. There 
were five of us and I am the only one that is 
left. 

“ When we young ones had learned to fly 
pretty well, we started south. After a few days 
we reached a land where there were broad marshes 
covered with reeds. There we stopped for a 
while. But the men of that country hunted us 
with their fire-sticks. They called us reed birds 
and liked us to eat. They shot many of our 
friends, but for a few days our family all escaped. 
But one morning we heard a sound like thunder 


BOB LINCOLN’S STORY OF HIS OWN LIFE 35 
and our mother fell to the ground and we saw her 
no more. 

“ This frightened us and we flew on to the 
southward for many days. Of course wherever 
we found a good place, we stopped to rest and eat. 
But we did not stop for long until we came to a 
land where there were great fields of rice. There 
we found great flocks of our kindred, who had 
grown fat by feeding upon the rice. 

“ But here again were men with their fire- 
sticks and they killed two of my brothers. All 
the time we stayed there, we lived in fear. So 
after some days we left the rice land and went on 
toward the south. We crossed the great, salt sea 
and at last found the winter home of our kindred. 

“ In the spring we came back again to this 
meadow. And here I found Mrs. Bob Lincoln. 
I courted her with my sweetest songs, and after a 
short time we were married and set up house- 
keeping. 

“ That autumn I led a family of my own on the 
long journey to our southern home. Three times 
have I made the journey to and from this meadow, 
and each time some of my family have fallen a 


36 


THE MAGIC SPEECH FLOWER 


prey to our many enemies. But the men with 
their fire-sticks are the worst of all. Why are 
they so cruel to us ] ” 

“ Alas,” said Bob Lincoln, after a pause, “ I 
dread this journey. Not many of my friends have 
escaped so long. I fear I shall never return. But 
it cannot be helped, we must go. I think, little 
boy, we shall start this morning. So I will say 
good-bye now.” 

“ Good-bye, Bob Lincoln,” said little Luke, “ I 
hope it will not be as you fear. I shall look for 
you again next May.” 

The Bob Lincoln family started on their long 
southern journey and little Luke went sadly back 
to the house. Now that the Bob Lincolns were 
gone, the meadow no longer seemed so pleasant 
to him. 


V. LITTLE LUKE MAKES FRIENDS AMONG 
THE WILD FOLK 

While little Luke spent a good deal of his time 
with the Bob Lincoln family, he did not neglect 
his other friends among the wild folk. Almost 
every day he had long talks with one or more of 
them. Thus it came to pass that he soon became 
exceeding wise with the wisdom of the wild kin- 
dreds ; for his eyes were sharper and his ears 
keener than those of any other of the house 
people. 

There was Sam, the hired man, who thought he 
knew a good deal about the wild folk. And there 
was Old Bill, the hunter, who had done little 
besides hunting and trapping all his long life; 
even these did not begin to know the beasts and 
birds as little Luke knew them. Before the Find- 
ing of the Magic Flower, he had thought them 
marvels of woodcraft and fieldcraft. Now they 
seemed to him almost blind and deaf. 


38 THE MAGIC SPEECH FLOWER 

As he went about with them, he found that for 
all their boasting (and they often boasted) they 
really knew little about the wild folk. Many 
times they would pass Wa-poose the Rabbit 
sitting unseen on his form within a few feet 
of them. Mother Mit-chee the Ruffled Partridge 
made her nest in plain sight on the ground beside 
the old trail and they passed by a hundred times 
and never saw her. And so it was with many 
others of the wild folk. Often they went quietly 
about their business before the very eyes of the 
house people who did not see them. 

During that summer little Luke spent much 
time with Old John the lone Indian, who lived at 
the foot of Black Mountain. For Old John, see- 
ing the little boy’s love of woodcraft and his 
wonderful keenness of ear and eye, and under- 
standing, came to love him more than he had 
loved anyone or anything for many years. 

He would make some excuse to come to the 
farmhouse. Then, when his pretended business 
was finished, he would sit with the little boy on 
an old bench on the lawn and tell him stories of 
the Red Men or of the wild folk. 


LUKE MAKES FRIENDS AMONG THE WILD FOLK 39 

Sometimes, too, the little boy would go up the 
trail and sit by the spring where he had found 
the Magic Speech Flower and wait for the old 
Indian. Or, when Old John started for home, he 
would go along with him up into the woods and 
there they would sit on a fallen log and talk of 
the old days when the Red Men dwelt in that 
land, or of the wood folk they saw and heard 
about them. These were most enchanting tales, 
and little Luke enjoyed them exceedingly. 

And he learned that in some matters Old John 
was very wise. But these were mostly concerned 
with hunting and trapping. Little Luke did not 
like the idea of killing any of his wild friends, 
even though he knew that their flesh and fur were 
very useful. He knew, too, that the Law of the 
Wild Kindred allowed everyone to kill to supply 
his need and so he did not much mind the killing 
in Old John’s stories, for he knew that the old 
man never killed any creature needlessly. 

And he learned, too, that the old Indian had 
some strange notions about the wild folk. He 
believed that long ago they had all been very 
mucli like men. “ In those days,” he said, “ the 


40 THE MAGIC SPEECH FLOWER 

animals could talk and build wigwams just as the 
Red Men did.” He believed, too, that the fore- 
fathers of some tribes of the Red Men had been 
animals, and that the forefathers of some of the 
animal kindreds had been men. All this seemed 
queer to the boy, but not half so queer as it would 
have seemed before the Finding of the Magic 
Speech Flower and his talks with the wild folk. 

Now the tale of the Finding of the Magic 
Flower was told abroad among all the tribes of 
the wild folk round about. For this reason, as 
time went on, many of them came to see the 
wonderful Man Cub (as they often called little 
Luke) who could speak and understand the lan- 
guage of the wild kindreds. 

In that way little Luke came to know many of 
the wild folk that he had never seen before. 
Some of them were furry folk, who lived in the 
woods and fields and along the brooks, and some 
were beautiful feathered folk, who came down 
from the tops of the tall pines and spruces and 
hemlocks. 

These were mostly bird folk who had once 
lived in the Summer Land and had learned to 


LUKE MAKES FRIENDS AMONG THE WILD FOLK 41 
travel southward before the return of Pe-boan 
the cruel Winter King. They loved the upper 
spaces of the great forests, and there they lived as 
some of the water folk live in the lower depths of 
the great sea. 

These bird folk hated the open fields and even 
the lower air, in the thick forests, seemed heavy 
and unpleasant to them. So they seldom came 
down from their airy homes in the upper branches 
of the great trees. For this reason little Luke 
did not see much of them, but when he did see 
one of them, it was as if he had seen an angel. 



VI. LITTLE LUKE AND KIT-CHEE THE GREAT 
CRESTED FLYCATCHER 

Down in the far corner of the orchard stood an 
old apple tree. Some of its limbs were dead and 
the rest of it was so covered with orchard moss 
that it seemed gray with age. As little Luke was 
passing one day, he noticed a round hole in one 
of its branches. “Now,” thought he to himself, 
“I’ll climb up and take a peep into that hole.” 
And so he did. 

As he looked into the dark cavity, there was a 
sudden explosion, which sounded like the noise 
made by an angry cat. The little boy jumped 
back so quickly that he almost fell to the ground. 
Just then he heard someone in the branches of the 
tree above him. “ Whee-ree, whee-ree,” sounded 
a mocking voice, that made little Luke think that 


LUKE AND KIT-CHEE THE CRESTED FLYCATCHER 43 
somebody was making fun of him. He looked up 
and saw Kit-chee the Great Crested Flycatcher. 

“ All-ha ! ” said Kit-chee; “so she scared you, 
did she?” 

The little boy moved his hand toward the hole. 

“ Better not ; better not,” said Kit-chee ; “ that’s 
Mother Kit-chee in there. She doesn’t like to be 
disturbed, and she has a temper of her own, and 
a sharp bill to go with it.” 

“Excuse me, Father Kit-chee,” said the little 
boy; “I didn’t know. I only wanted to see what 
was in that hole.” 

“All right,” said Kit-chee. “We don’t mind 
you. Perhaps, if you ask her politely, she’ll come 
out and let you take a peep.” 

“Pray, Mother Kit-chee,” said the little boy, 
“ aren’t you hungry ? There are some nice flies 
and bugs out here, and besides, if you will be kind 
enough to allow me, I should like a peep at your 
nest and eggs.” 

“Oh, very well,” answered Mother Kit-chee, 
“I’ll do anything to oblige you, when you speak 
in that way.” And out she came. 

Both Father Kit-chee and Mother Kit-chee 


44 THE MAGIC SPEECH FLOWER 

were rather handsome, dignified birds. They 
each wore a coat of butternut brown, mixed with 
olive green, and a vest pearl gray toward the 
throat and yellow lower down. 

“ Thank you,” said the little boy to Mother 
Kit-chee as she came out, “111 not disturb any- 
thing. Ill be very careful.” And so he was. 
He looked down into the hole, where he saw 
five creamy-wliite eggs, streaked lengthwise with 
brown. But the queerest thing he saw was a 
snake-skin which formed part of the nest. 

“There’s the skin of a snake,” exclaimed the 
little boy. “ How did that come there ? Did the 
snake try to steal your eggs, and did you kill 
him?” 

“Oh, no,” replied Father Kit-chee, “I found 
that skin over yonder in the pasture. You know 
that A-tos-sa the Snake sheds his skin when it 
grows old and stiff, and grows a new one that fits 
him better. We just pick up the cast-off skins 
and build them into our nests.” 

“What on earth do you do it for?” asked the 
little boy. “I wouldn’t want such a thing around 
my bed. I don’t like snakes, or even their skins.” 


LUKE AND KIT-CHEE THE CRESTED FLYCATCHER 45 

“I don’t like snakes either,” said Kit-chee, “but 
it’s a custom in our family to use their skins in 
nest-building. Wherever you find a home of one 
of our tribe, there you will find a snake-skin. I’ve 
heard my grandfather say that our kinfolk, who 
dwell far to the south beyond the big seawater, 
have the same custom. There’s a tradition about 
it, too.” 

“ Oh, please tell me about it,” said the little 
boy. “ I’m sure it will be an interesting story.” 

“Very well; anything to please you,” said 
Kit-chee. 


VII. WHY THE KIT-CHEE PEOPLE ALWAYS USE 
SNAKE-SKINS IN NEST-BUILDING 

“ Long, long ago,” began he, “ when the world 
was new, all the beasts and birds were at peace 
with each other. In those days it was summer all 
the year round. After a while a change came.” 

“ Oh, yes, I’ve heard about that,” said the little 
boy. “ Pe-boan the cruel Winter King came 
down from the frozen North and drove off Ni-pon 
the Queen of Summer. Then the animals and 
birds got hungry and began to kill each other. 
I’ve heard about that several times.” 

“Yes,” said Kit-chee, “that was the way it 
was. The animals and birds began to kill and 
rob each other. No nest was safe. Mee-ko the 
Red Squirrel, A-tos-sa the Snake, Ka-ka-go the 
Crow, and many others learned to rob our nests 
and eat our young ones. 

“ Every one of the birds tried to hide her nest, 
but in spite of the best that they could do, the 
robbers would often find them. The worst of all 


SNAKE-SKINS IN NEST-BUILDING 47 

our enemies was Kag-ax the Weasel. The Kit- 
chee families suffered terribly. They built their 
nests as we do now in holes in trees. Kag-ax is 
a good climber and has sharp eyes. It was 
almost impossible to hide a nest from him. 

“ After a while things got so bad that the Kit- 
chee family came together in a council. They 
talked over their troubles and made up their 
minds to go to the Master of Life and ask him to 
help them. And so they did. 

“ ‘ I am sorry for you/ said he, when he had 
heard their story, ‘ and will tell you what to do. 
As you say, your worst enemy is Kag-ax the 
Weasel. Now Kag-ax is more afraid of A-tos-sa 
the Snake than of any other creature in the whole 
world. He cannot bear even the sight of a 
snake-skin. You must weave a snake-skin into 
each one of your nests. Then he will not dare to 
trouble you.’ 

“ ‘ But how shall we get the snake-skins ? ’ 
asked Grandfather Kit-chee, the head of the 
family. 

“ ‘ That is easy/ answered the Master of Life. 
‘ A-tos-sa, as you know, sheds his skin. If you 


48 


THE MAGIC SPEECH FLOWER 


look sharp, you can find the cast-off skins almost 
anywhere. Do as 1 have said, and you will be 
safe. Even Mee-ko the Squirrel and others of 
your enemies will be afraid of the snake-skin and 
let your nests alone.’ 

“ The Kit-chee family did as the Master of Life 
told them to do. From that time to this they 
always have woven a snake-skin into their nests, 
and their nests have seldom been robbed.” 

“ Thank you,” said the little boy, “ that was a 
good story. Now I must be going home. There’s 
Aunt Martha calling for dinner.” And he slid 
down out of the old apple tree and went across 
the orchard to the house. 



VIII. LITTLE LUKE AND NICK-UTS 
THE YELLOWTHROAT 

Among little Luke’s bird friends was little 
Nick-uts the Yellowthroat. He was a dainty 
little fellow, with an olive green back, a bright 
yellow breast, and a black mask across his face 
that made him look like a highwayman. Though 
he was lively and nervous, he had a gentle dispo- 
sition and a sweet voice. His home was in some 
low bushes in the pasture. 

Whenever little Luke went up to see him, he 
would hop up on a branch and call out, “ Which 
way, sir ? Which way, sir ? ” And when the 
little boy started to go away, he would say, 
“Wait a minute. Wait a minute.” 

Every time the little boy went for the cows he 
would stop and chat a moment with Mr. and Mrs. 


50 THE MAGIC SPEECH FLOWER 

Nick-uts. To be sure, Mrs. Nick-uts never had 
much to say. She was a quiet little body, not so 
fidgety as Nick-uts, and besides, she had to stay 
close at home and see to the eggs and babies. 

One morning, as little Luke was going for 
the cows, he saw Nick-uts bobbing around very 
excitedly. 

“ Come here. Come here,” called Nick-uts, 
when he saw the little boy. “ I want some help.” 
And he hopped over by the nest. 

Little Luke went over to the nest and looked 
in. “ Look there,” said Nick-uts, “ see that big, 
ugly egg. Take it out, please.” 

“ Take it out ? ” said little Luke. “ Why should 
I do that ? Isn’t it yours ? ” 

“No, indeed,” said Nick-uts, “it’s old Mother 
Mo-lo’s. The nasty old wretch laid it in there 
while we were away from home. She’s always 
sneaking around, the lazy old thing, to lay her 
eggs in some other bird’s nest. She’s cowardly 
too. She always picks out the nest of one smaller 
than herself. I wish I were big enough to give 
her a sound thrashing. 

“ Please take the egg out,” he went on. “ I 


LITTLE LUKE AND NICK-UTS THE YELLOWTHROAT 51 
can’t do it myself, and if you don’t take it out, 
we shall have to leave the nest and our own eggs 
and build a new one.” 

Little Luke took the egg out of the nest and 
threw it on the ground. “ Why don’t Mother 
Mo-lo build a nest of her own ? ” he asked. 

“Oh, she can’t. She doesn’t know enough,” 
answered Nick-uts. “ In the old days she had a 
chance to learn the same as the rest of us. She 
wouldn’t learn then, and now she can’t. I don’t 
believe she ever tries. 

“ She sneaks around and steals her eggs into 
the nests of other birds, and some of them are so 
silly they don’t know the difference. They hatch 
the egg and bring up the young one as if it were 
their own. The young Mo-los are greedy things 
and they eat up everything away from the other 
little birds. Besides, they grow so fast that they 
crowd out the other young ones, so that they fall 
to the ground and die. I’ve known old Mother 
Mo-lo to fool O-loo-la the Wood Thrush that way. 
It’s a shame for a decent bird to be imposed upon 
like that. 

“ She tried the trick twice on me last year. 


52 THE MAGIC SPEECH FLOWER 

Once we managed to roll the egg out, and once 
we built a second floor to the nest, but we lost 
two of our own eggs by doing it.” 

“ You said that Mother Mo-lo had a chance to 
learn to build a nest,” said little Luke. “ Tell me 
about it.” 

“Well,” said Nick-uts, “since you have been 
so kind as to help me, I’ll try. I haven’t heard 
the story for a long while, perhaps I can’t remem- 
ber it very well. But I’ll do the best I can.” 


IX. WHY MOTHER MO-LO THE COWBIRD LAYS 
HER EGGS IN OTHER BIRDS’ NESTS 

“ In the beginning,” said he, “ the Master of 
Life made the world. When he had finished the 
land and the sea, the mountains and the mead- 
ows, he made the fishes, and then the four-footed 
kindreds. Last of all, he created the birds. But 
he didn’t make them all at the same time. The 
last ones were Father and Mother Mo-lo. 

“ When Mother Mo-lo began to fly about, the 
other birds went to her and offered to teach her 
how to build a nest. 

“ ‘ Come with me,’ said the oven bird; ‘I’ll 
show you how to build a nest on the ground 
where no one will find it. You must just push 
up some of the dry leaves in the forest, and then 
put some grass and twigs under them. It’s very 
easy.’ 

“ 6 For my part,’ said the woodpecker, ‘ I 
wouldn’t build on the ground anyway. I should 


54 THE MAGIC SPEECH FLOWER 

be afraid that a deer or a bear or some other 
creature would step on me. If you want a safe 
nest, I’ll show you how to build one. You just 
find a dead limb, not too dead, and bore a deep 
hole into it. Put a little soft, rotten wood in the 
bottom, and there you are ! ’ 

“ ‘That must be a close, stuffy kind of a nest; 
enough to smother one/ said the oriole scornfully. 
‘ Come with me and I will teach you to hang 
your nest on the end of an elm branch. You 
just weave together some hair and grass and moss 
and hang it on a slender, swinging branch, where 
nothing can get to it. Then you’ll be safe. The 
wind will rock your babies to sleep for you and 
you’ll have plenty of fresh air.’ 

“ ‘ I wouldn’t like that at all/ said the sand 
martin. ‘ I’d be seasick the first half hour. A 
good hole in a sandbank suits me much better. 
To be sure, the sand sometimes caves in. But 
that doesn’t matter much. A little hard work 
will clear your doorway.’ 

“ ‘ What do you do when the high waters 
come?’ asked the phoebe bird. ‘For my part/ 
continued she, ‘ I like a rock ledge for a foun- 


MOTHER MO-LO THE COWBIRD 55 

(lation with another one above for a roof. The 
rock never caves in on you. A little hair and 
grass, nicely laid down, with a little moss on the 
outside, and you are comfortable and safe. You’ll 
never be drowned out there.’ 

“ * I don’t like rocks,’ said the robin. ‘ A fork 
in a tree suits me much better. Just lay down a 
few sticks for a foundation, then weave together 
some twigs and grass and plaster the inside with 
some good thick mud, and you have a serviceable 
nest, good enough for anyone. A few feathers in the 
bottom will make it soft and comfortable. It may 
not be so elegant as some others, but it suits me.’ 

“ And so it went on. Each one of the birds 
praised its own nest and offered to show Mother 
Mo-lo how to build one like it. 

“But Mother Mo-lo cared little for what they 
said. She wasn’t even polite enough to pretend 
to pay attention. She was too conceited. She 
thought that she was handsome and knew about 
all there was to be known.” 

“Handsome?” said little Luke; “the ugly old 
thing! It can’t be that she had ever looked at 
herself.” 


56 THE MAGIC SPEECH FLOWER 

“Oh, I don’t know,” said Nick-nts, “the sillier 
people are, the wiser they think themselves. And 
it’s always the ugly ones who think themselves 
the most beautiful.” 

“Well,” said little Luke, “I’ve seen a good 
deal of her, but I never thought her handsome 
in the least. You know she follows the cows 
about so much that we house people call her the 
cowbird.” 

“Well, at any rate,” said Nick-uts, “she 
thought she knew a great deal more than she 
really did. 

“ So she said to the other birds, very haughtily, 
4 You are all very kind, and I am very much 
obliged to you. But I think I can get along 
without your help. I know how to build a nest 
that will suit me better than any of yours.’ 

“ 4 Indeed, is that so ? ’ cried the other birds. 
4 You must have learned very quickly. Who was 
your teacher anyway ? ’ 

44 4 Oh,’ said Mother Mo-lo, 4 nobody taught me, 
but I know how just the same.’ 

44 4 Very well,’ said the other birds, 4 we only 
wanted to be kind and help you. But we won’t 


MOTHER MO-LO THE COWBIRD 57 

bother you any more. Good-bye.’ And they all 
flew away to attend to their own affairs. 

“ After a while Mother Mo-lo tried to build a 
nest. First she tried to bore a hole in a dead 
branch, but she couldn’t do it. Then she tried 
the sandbank, but the sand caved in and got in 
her eyes and almost smothered her. Then she 
tried the other kinds of nests. But every one was 
a failure. At last she gave it up, and ever since 
then she has laid her eggs in other birds’ nests and 
let them rear her young ones for her.” 



X. THE STORY OF O-PEE-CHEE THE FIRST ROBIN 

One day little Luke heard Old John the Indian 
speak of redbreast as Little Brother O-pee-chee. 
He wanted to ask the old man about the name, 
but did not get a chance. So the next morning 
he went down to the apple tree in the meadow and 
asked Father Redbreast about it. 

“That,” answered redbreast, “is an old tale 
which both the Red Men and our people know. 
According to the story, the first redbreast was an 
Indian boy, and that is why he calls us Little 
Brothers.” 

“Tell me about it,” said the little boy. 

“Long, long ago,” began Father Redbreast, 
“there was a tribe of Indians which dwelt in the 


O-PEE-CHEE THE FIRST ROBIN 59 

distant Northland. Their chief, who was a wise 
man and a brave warrior, had an only child, a little 
son. The boy was a bright little fellow, but not 
very strong. Somehow he was not so big and 
hardy as the other Indian boys. But his father 
loved him more than anything else in the world 
and wanted him to become the wisest man and 
the greatest warrior of his tribe. 

“‘My son/ said the old chief one day, ‘you are 
about to become a warrior. You know the cus- 
tom of our tribe. You must go apart and fast for 
a long time. The longer you fast, the greater and 
wiser you will become. I want you to fast longer 
than any other Indian has ever fasted. If you do 
this, the Good Man-i-to, the Master of Life, will 
come to you in a dream and tell you what you 
must do to become wise in council and brave, 
strong, and skillful in war/ 

“‘Father/ said the boy, ‘I will do whatever you 
bid me. But I fear that I am not able to do what 
you wish/ 

“‘Make your heart strong/ answered the father, 
‘and all will be well. Most of the young men fast 
only four or five days. I want you to fast for 


60 THE MAGIC SPEECH FLOWER 

twelve days, then you will have strong dreams. 
Now I will go into the forest and build your fast- 
ing lodge for you. Make yourself ready, for to- 
morrow you must begin your fast.’ 

“The little boy said no more and on the mor- 
row his father took him to the fasting lodge and 
left him there. The boy stretched himself upon a 
mat, which his mother had made for him, and lay 
still. 

“Each day the old chief went and looked at his 
son and asked him about his dreams. Each time 
the boy answered that the Man-i-to had not 
come. 

“Day by day the boy became weaker and 
weaker. On the eleventh day he spoke to his 
father. 

“‘Oh, my father,’ said he, ‘I am not strong 
enough to fast longer. I am very weak. The 
Man-i-to has not come to me. Let me break my 
fast.’ 

“‘You are the son of a great warrior,’ said the 
father sternly; ‘make your heart strong. Yet a 
little while and the Man-i-to will surely come to 
you. Perhaps he will come to-night.’ 


O-PEE-CHEE THE FIRST ROBIN 61 

“The boy shook his head sadly and his father 
went back to his wigwam. 

“The next day when he drew near to the fast- 
ing lodge, he heard someone talking within it. 

“‘My father has asked too much/ said a voice 
which sounded like, and yet unlike, the voice of 
his son. ‘I am not strong enough. He should 
have waited until I became older and stronger. 
Now I shall die/ 

“‘It was not the will of the Man-i-to/ said 
another voice, ‘that you should become a great 
warrior.. But you shall not die. From this time 
you shall be a bird. You shall fly about in the 
free air. No longer shall you suffer the pain and 
sorrow which fall to the lot of men/ 

“The old chief could wait no longer. He 
opened the door of the lodge and looked within. 
No one was there, only a brown bird with a gray 
breast flew out of the door and perched upon a 
branch above his head. 

“The old chief was very sad, but the bird spoke 
to him and said, ‘Do not mourn for me, my father, 
for I am free from pain and sorrow. It was not 
the will of the Man-i-to that I should become the 


62 


THE MAGIC SPEECH FLOWER 


greatest warrior of the tribe. But because I was 
obedient to you and did the best I could, he has 
changed me into a bird. 

“‘From this time, as long as the world shall 
last, I shall be the friend of man. When the cold 
winds blow and ice covers the streams, I shall go 
away to the warm land of the South. But in the 
spring, when the snows begin to melt, I shall 
return. And when the children hear my voice, 
they shall be happy, knowing that the long, cold 
winter is over. Do not mourn for me, my father. 
Farewell !’ 

“Ever since then, when the Indian children hear 
a robin singing, they say, ‘ There is O-pee-chee, the 
bird that was once an Indian boy.’ And no Indian 
boy ever hurts a robin.” 



XI. HOW THE ROBIN’S BREAST BECAME RED 

When the robin had finished his story, little 
Luke thought for a moment. Then he said, 
“ That’s a very interesting story. But there is 
one thing about it I don’t understand.” 

“ What is that?” asked Father Redbreast. 

“ Why,” said the little boy, “ you said that 
O-pee-chee’s breast was gray. How does it come 
that yours is red ? ” 

“ That is another story,” answered Father Red- 
breast. 


64 THE MAGIC SPEECH FLOWER 

“ I should like very much to hear it. Please 
tell me about it/’ said little Luke. 

“Once upon a time,” said Father Kedbreast, 
“ long after the days of the first robin, old Mah-to 
the great White Bear dwelt alone in the far North- 
land. He was the king of all the bears and was 
very cunning and cruel. He was so selfish that 
he did not like anybody else even to come into 
his country. 

“If a hunter wandered into the region where he 
lived, he would lie in wait for him and kill him. 
One stroke of his mighty paw and the man would 
fall, to rise no more. He killed so many of them 
that the hunters began to be afraid to go into that 
land. As for the beasts and birds, they all feared 
him and kept as far away from him as they could. 

“ After a time a brave hunter with his son wan- 
dered into the kingdom of the great bear to hunt. 
Day after day old Mah-to followed the man and 
boy. But the hunter was cautious as well as 
brave, and the old bear w r as afraid of his sharp 
arrows and did not dare to attack him openly. 

“ When the snow began to fall, the hunter built 


HOW THE ROBIN’S BREAST BECAME RED 65 
a lodge and kindled a fire. He cut down a great 
many trees and brought the wood close to the 
door of the lodge, 

“ ‘Now/ said he, to his son, ‘we must keep the 
fire going day and night. Then we shall not 
freeze/ 

“Old Mah-to, who was sneaking about the 
lodge, heard this and thought, ‘ I will watch and 
wait until they have gone away or are asleep, and 
then I will put out the fire. Then they will have 
to go away or else freeze/ 

“But the hunter was very careful. When he 
went out to hunt, he left the boy in the lodge to 
keep the fire burning. The old bear was afraid of 
the fire, which he thought was some kind of magic, 
and so he did not dare to touch the boy. At 
night the hunter and the boy watched the fire by 
turns, and so kept it burning brightly. 

“ The old bear watched for many days before 
his chance came. At last one day when the 
hunter had gone away, the little boy fell asleep and 
allowed the fire to burn low. 

“‘Now/ thought the old bear, ‘now is my 
chance/ So he walked into the lodge and tram- 


66 


THE MAGIC SPEECH FLOWER 


pled the fire with his great, wet feet, until he 
thought he had put it all out. He meant to kill 
the boy, but the fire scorched his feet and scared 
him. So he went away again to the edge of the 
forest and sat there licking his burnt paws, waiting 
to see what would happen. 

“Now O-pee-chee had followed the man and 
the boy into the Northland. He watched the old 
bear and saw what he did. When he went away, 
the robin flew down and scratched about among 
the ashes until he found a small, live coal. Then 
he brought some splinters and dry moss and laid 
them upon the coal and fanned it with his wings 
until the fire caught the wood and burned up 
strong and bright. 

“ The heat of the blazing splinters scorched his 
breast and made it red, but the robin did not stop 
until the fire was blazing brightly. 

“Just then the hunter walked into the lodge 
and saw what the robin was doing. He saw, too, 
the big footprints of the great bear and he knew 
that the robin had saved his life and the life of his 
boy. 

“ All that winter the good hunter fed the kind 


HOW THE ROBIN’S BREAST BECAME RED 67 

robin and sheltered it in his lodge. When he 
went back again to his people, he told them the 
story, and they grew to love the robin more than 
before. To this day they are never tired of tell- 
ing their children the story of O-pee-chee the 
Robin and how his breast became red.” 



XII. HOW THE BEES GOT THEIR STINGS 

Little Luke was fond of watching the bees. 
He was not afraid of them, for he knew that if he 
did not disturb or annoy them, they would not 
sting him. 

One morning the bees in one of Uncle Mark’s 
hives seemed greatly excited. They buzzed and 
buzzed about the hive, till there was a great swarm 
of them in the air. All at once they started in a 
body and flew down toward the orchard. 

The little boy followed them. They settled in 


HOW THE BEES GOT THEIR STINGS 69 

a great bunch on the branch of an apple tree. 
The little boy ran back and told Uncle Mark that 
the bees had swarmed. Then Uncle Mark and 
Sam the hired man took a beehive, a ladder, and 
a saw and went down to the orchard. Sam climbed 
the ladder, sawed off the limb, and lowered the 
bees to the ground. Uncle Mark set the hive over 
the swarm and left it awhile. He knew that the 
bees would settle down in the hive and soon feel 
at home and begin to gather honey. And so 
they did. But Sam the hired man was stung 
several times. One of his eyes swelled shut and 
one of his cheeks looked as if he had the 
toothache. 

“ Why did your friends sting Sam?” asked little 
Luke the next day of his friend Ali-mo the 
Honey Bee. 

“Oh,” answered Ah-mo, “he was too rough. 
The bee people have sharp tempers and ever 
since they got stings they are apt to use them 
when they get angry.” 

“ Got stings ! ” exclaimed the little boy. 
“ Didn’t the bee people always have stings ? ” 

“ Oh, no,” answered Ah-mo; “not always.” 


70 THE MAGIC SPEECH FLOWER 

“ How did they get them ? ” asked little Luke. 
“ Tell me about it.” 

“Long, long ago, when the world was new,” 
said Ah-mo, “ the bee folk had no stings. They 
were just as busy workers as they are to-day. All 
day long and all summer long they flew from 
flower to flower and gathered wax and honey, 
which they stored against the winter, when there 
would be no flowers and no honey. 

“ But many of the other creatures liked honey 
as well as the bees. They would watch the bees 
till they found out where their storehouses were. 
Then they would break them open and steal all 
the honey. This was bad for the bee people. 
For without their honey they would starve to 
death during the long, cold winters. 

“ At last matters got so bad with the bee 
people that they sent a messenger to the Master 
of Life to ask him to come to their aid. When 
he had heard about their trouble, he said to tlieir 
messenger, ‘ Go back to your people. In two 
moons I will come to visit you. By that time I 
shall have thought out a way to help you.’ 


HOW THE BEES GOT THEIR STINGS 71 

“The bee people were very glad. They told 
their cousins, the hornets and the wasps, that the 
Master of Life had promised to assist them 
against their enemies. At the end of the two 
moons, the Master of Life came and all the bees 
assembled to meet him. The wasps and the 
hornets came also. 

“ T have thought of a way to help you,’ said the 
Master of Life to them. ‘ From this day you shall 
have stings. Hereafter, if anyone comes to steal 
your honey, you will be able to defend yourselves/ 

“The bees were greatly pleased. They were 
no longer afraid of their enemies and did not try 
to hide their storehouses as they had done before. 

“Now the worst of all the enemies of the bee 
people was Moo-ween the Black Bear. One day 
Mr. and Mrs. Moo-ween were walking by a hollow 
tree where the bees had made their home. They 
looked up and saw many of the bee folk going in 
and out of a hole in the tree. 

“‘What lots of honey there must be in that 
tree/ said Moo-ween. ‘How good it would taste. 
Let us climb up and take it away from the bees/ 
So the two bears beg^tn to climb the tree. 


72 THE MAGIC SPEECH FLOWER 

“ But the bees were not afraid of them. They 
did not fly away and leave the bears to eat their 
honey, as they had always done before. Instead, 
they flew down and began to sting the bears. 
The two bears could not understand it. They had 
never been stung before and they groaned and 
growled with pain. The bees settled upon their 
eyes, their ears, and their noses, and stung them 
again and again, until they had to let go of the 
tree, and fell to the ground. There they rolled 
over and over, growling and groaning and snap- 
ping their teeth. The bees kept on stinging 
them. The bears could not stand it. They got 
up and ran away as fast as they could. Since 
that time the bee folk have had stings and the 
courage to use them whenever any creature, little 
or big, attempts to annoy or injure them.” 



In May little Luke had watched Mr. and Mrs. 
Lun-i-fro the Eave Swallows while they had built 
their queer, pocket-shaped, mud hut beneath the 
eaves of the big barn. He saw them on the 
muddy shores of the river, rolling little pellets of 
mud, which they carried to the barn and built into 
their nest, and wondered at their odd ways. 

“ I wish,” he often said to himself, “ that they 
could talk. I would ask them how they learned 
to do it.” At that time he had no idea he would 
ever be able to talk to them. 


74 THE MAGIC SPEECH FLOWER 

After he had found the Magic Speech Flower 
he often talked to Father and Mother Lun-i-fro. 
But their talks were always short, for the two 
swallows were always too busy chasing gnats and 
flies through the air to spend much time on any- 
thing else. 

Early in September the swallows began to 
gather in large flocks. The young ones, who were 
now finishing their lessons in flying, were intro- 
duced to the rest of the tribe and the little boy 
often saw them training in squads. They would 
sit in a long row upon the peak of the barn roof. 
Suddenly they would start off all together and fly 
about for a while. Then they would come back 
and settle down upon the roof again. 

One day as little Luke was watching them, 
Father Lun-i-fro happened to light upon a fence 
stake near him. “ Father Lun-i-fro,” said the lit- 
tle boy, “ what are you swallow folk doing these 
days?” 

“We are holding our councils and getting 
ready to go to the sunny Southland for the win- 
ter,” answered the old swallow. 

“ Before you go,” said the boy, “ I wish you 


THE STORY OF THE FIRST SWALLOWS 75 

would tell me how you learned to build your 
nests in such an odd way.” 

“ Well,” said Father Lun-i-fro, “ since you have 
been so nice to us this summer, HI tell you.” 

“ Long, long ago,” went on the old swallow, 
“ there was an Indian village upon the top of a 
high hill. 

“ The grown-up people of the village were 
very good. But alas ! the children were naughty. 
They were so disobedient that they could never 
be trusted to mind anything that their parents 
said to them. The old people often talked to 
them and did their best to make them behave 
better, but it did no good. As soon as their 
backs were turned, those naughty children would 
begin to quarrel and fight and steal and run 
away. 

“ The old people were much troubled. The 
woods were full of bears and panthers and wolves, 
and they felt sure that some time the wicked chil- 
dren would be eaten up by them. 

“ They did everything they could think of to 
make it so pleasant for the children that they 


76 


THE MAGIC SPEECH FLOWER 


would stay at home. They made bows and 
arrows for the boys, and Indian dolls for the girls, 
and all sorts of playthings for all of them, but it 
did no good. They would run away just the 
same. 

“ At last the elders of the village held a council 
to see if they could not think of some plan to 
make their children behave better. After much 
talk it was thought best to call in all the children 
and have the village chief talk to them. This 
was done, but it did no good. The next day they 
ran away just the same. Their parents had to 
search far into the night before they found them. 
This time the old folks were very angry. 

“ Another council was held. They talked the 
matter over a long time and made up their 
minds to send for Gloos-cap the good and wise 
Magician, who was yet upon the earth. And so 
they did. 

“ When he came he found that, as usual, the 
children had run away from home and could not 
be found. They had already been gone two or 
three days. 

“ Gloos-cap frowned and looked very stern. ‘ I 


THE STORY OF THE FIRST SWALLOWS 77 

will find them/ said he, ‘ and when I find them I 
will punish them as they deserve/ 

“ By his magic power he was able to follow 
their trail, which their parents had not been able 
to find. 

“ At length he saw them. They were playing 
about on the muddy shore of a small lake. Out 
of the mud they were making many different 
kinds of objects, especially little wigwams. 

“ He walked down to where they were. ‘You 
naughty children/ said he, ‘ are you not ashamed 
of yourselves, to disobey your parents and make 
them so much sorrow and trouble % ’ 

“ ‘ No, we are not/ spoke up one bold, saucy 
little fellow. ‘We don’t care for what they say. 
We’ve been having a good time all by our- 
selves.’ 

“‘Very well/ said Gloos-cap, ‘since you are 
not willing to obey your parents, you shall never 
trouble them any more. You shall become birds. 
Since you love to play in the mud, you shall 
always build your nests of mud; and since you 
love to gad about so much, you shall wander about 
the earth forever.’ 


78 THE MAGIC SPEECH FLOWER 

“And so it has been with the swallow folk 
since that time. 

“ But,” went on the’ old swallow, “ our forepar- 
ents learned their lesson, and since that time we 
always bring up our children to be very obedient. 
No doubt you have noticed how very well they 
mind.” 



XIV. LITTLE LUKE AND A-BAL-KA 
THE CHIPMUNK 

One of little Luke's best friends among the wild 
folk was A-bal-ka the Chipmunk. He was a 
dainty little fellow about five inches long, with a 
tail of the same length. His coat was of a yel- 
lowish-brown color, with black stripes running 
down his back. This fine, striped coat made him 
look much prettier than his cousin Mee-ko the 
Red Squirrel. 

He was a clean, jolly, little chap, and very fond 
of singing, though he knew but two songs. One 
was a sharp chip, chip, chip, which he would 
sometimes keep up for a long time. At a dis- 
tance it sounded like the call note of some bird. 
The .other was a cuck, cuck, cuck, which sounded 


80 THE MAGIC SPEECH FLOWER 

much like the song of the Cuckoo. A curious 
thing about this song was that one could 
scarcely tell where it came from. Little Luke 
was often deceived by it. Sometimes when 
it sounded as if A-bal-ka w r as near by, he was 
really a good way off, and when it sounded 
as if he were a good way off, he was really 
close by. 

Beside these songs, A-bal-ka had an odd way 
of saying chip, chur-r-r-r-r, when he was scared. 
This meant, “ I am not afraid of you,” and he 
never said it till he was safe in some hole where 
no one could get at him. 

A-bal-ka never harmed any one, nor did he 
scold and steal like Mee-ko the Red Squirrel. Yet 
he had many foes. Ko-ko-ka the Owl, Ak-sip 
the Hawk, Kee-wuk the Fox, Kag-ax the Weasel, 
Ko-sa the Mink, and A-tos-sa the Snake were 
always ready to pounce upon him at sight and 
make a meal of him. Even Mee-ko was not to 
be trusted. Sometimes he would chase A-bal-ka 
and rob him of the nuts which he was carrying to 
his storehouse. He would have robbed the store- 
house, too, if he could have got into it. # But 


LITTLE LUKE AND A-BAL-KA THE CHIPMUNK 81 
. A-bal-ka’s door was too small, and his hallways 
too narrow for Mee-ko. 

Little Luke knew all about A-bal-ka’s under- 
ground dwelling. The way he found out was 
this : Uncle Mark and Sam the hired man were 
digging stones on the hillside in the edge of the 
woods for the foundations of a new barn. While 
at this work, they uncovered the home of one of 
A-bal-ka’s brothers. It was made up of a long, 
winding passageway, ending in a sleeping cham- 
ber, near which was a storehouse, and in this 
storehouse there was a large quantity of nuts. 
These nuts were all good ones. The greater part 
of them were little, three-cornered beech nuts, 
which the squirrels like better than anything else. 
In all there was as much as half a bushel of nuts, 
enough to last a chipmunk all winter. The bed- 
room was a neat, little, round chamber, nicely 
filled with leaves, grass, and moss. In such a 
house as this, with its store of nuts, a chipmunk 
could live snug and warm all winter long and 
come out sleek and fat in the spring. 

Because of A-bal-ka’s many enemies, he was 
very watchful. He seldom went far from home, 


82 THE MAGIC SPEECH FLOWER 

and when he did venture to go abroad, he nearly 
always followed the same path. At first it ran 
along under the side of a fallen log. From the 
end of this, a few quick leaps carried him to a 
brush pile. A jump or two more brought him to 
a rock and yet a few more to a stone fence. Once 
there, he felt safe. At the least alarm, he could 
run into a hole too small for any of his foes 
except, perhaps, A-tos-sa, whom he dreaded more 
than any of the others. 

All along the stone fence stood nut trees, — 
oaks, hazels, walnuts, beeches, and others. And 
at one end was a cornfield. 

This made it very handy for A-bal-ka. He 
could gather the nuts which fell upon the stone 
fence, and when he went for corn, he could keep 
to the fence and thus avoid his enemies. Early 
in the fall he began to fill his storehouse. To 
and fro he went along the fence with his cheek- 
pouches full of corn and nuts. 

Little Luke often amused himself by watching 
him. He would pick up the nuts with his paws 
and put them into his cheek-pouches, and it was 
amazing how many they would hold. When he 


LITTLE LUKE AND A-BAL-KA THE CHIPMUNK 83 
started for home, his cheeks sometimes looked as 
if he had a very severe case of the mumps. 

One day in the autumn little Luke found out a 
queer thing about A-bal-ka. He was going up 
the trail with Old John. A-bal-ka started to cross 
the trail, but seeing the old Indian he became 
scared and ran up a tree. This was a thing which 
he seldom did ; never unless he was obliged to, to 
escape from his enemies. He is a ground squir- 
rel, and no tree climber, like his cousins the Red 
and the Gray Squirrels. 

“Now,” said Old John, “I’ll show you some- 
thing.” So he got a stout stick and began to tap 
the tree. Tap, tap, tap, tap, as if he were beat- 
ing time to music. This tapping had a strange 
effect upon A-bal-ka. At first he was greatly 
excited and tried to run farther up the tree. 
Soon he gave this up, turned around, and began 
to come down head foremost. He would lift his 
little feet and shake them as if something hurt 
them. Lower and lower he came, until the old 
Indian could easily have killed him with his club 
or caught him with his hand. He did neither. 
He just laughed and threw away his stick. 


84 THE MAGIC SPEECH FLOWER 

“ There,” said he, “ that’s the way to make a 
chipmunk come down out of a tree. They’ll 
always do it, if you tap long enough.” 

“ That’s queer,” said the little boy ; “ what 
makes them come down ? Why don’t they run 
farther up?” 

“ I don’t know,” said Old John, “ perhaps they 
think you are trying to cut down the tree, or 
maybe the jar hurts their feet. The Red Men 
used to think that there was some kind of a magic 
charm about it.” 

“ I am glad you didn’t hurt him,” said the little 
boy, as they went on up the trail. 

“ Hurt him ! ” exclaimed the old Indian, “ why, 
don’t you know that no Indian ever hurts a 
chipmunk ? ” 

“ Why is that ? ” asked the little boy. 

“ It’s an old, old story,” said Old John, “ but 
come, let us sit down on this log, and I’ll tell it 
to you.” 

So when they were both comfortably seated, 
the old Indian began the tale which you will find 
in the next chapter. 



XV. HOW A-BAL-KA GOT HIS BLACK STRIPES 

“ lx the old days before winter had come into 
the land, the beasts and the birds, the fishes, and 
even the insects, all had one language. They 
could speak the speech of the Red Men and they 
all lived together in peace and friendship. 

“ In those days, there was no killing and no war. 
But after winter had come upon the land, the 
Red Men learned to kill the wild folk and to use 
their flesh for food and their skins for wigwams 
and for clothing. 

“At first this was bad enough, but after men 
had learned to use bows and arrows, spears, knives, 
and hooks, it was still worse. They became 
more and more cruel. They delighted to slaugh- 
ter even creatures for which they had no use. 


86 


THE MAGIC SPEECH FLOWER 


Out of heedlessness, they trod upon the worms 
and the frogs, and killed them without caring 
for the pain and suffering which they caused. 
At last the animals made up their minds to try 
to find out some means to check the slaughter of 
the wild kindreds. 

“The bears were the first to meet in council. 
After much talk, they decided to begin war at 
once against the human race. 

“‘What weapons shall we use against them?’ 
asked one of the bears. 

“ ‘ Why/ answered another, ‘ the same that 
they use ; bows and arrows, of course.’ 

“ ‘ But how shall we make them % ’ asked one 
bear. 

“ ‘ Oh, that is easy/ said another. ‘ I’ll show 
you how to do it. You know I lived for a long 
time in one of their villages.’ 

“ So this bear got a piece of asliwood and a 
string, some straight reeds and pieces of flint, and 
made a bow and some arrows. 

“ The White Bear, who was chief of the council, 
stepped out to make a trial of the bow. He 
pulled back the string and let the arrow fly, but 



The Testing of the Bow 




88 


THE MAGIC SPEECH FLOWER 


his long claws caught the string and spoiled the 
shot. 

“ Seeing this, one of the bears proposed to cut 
off his own claws and make another trial. This 
was done and the arrow went straight to the 
mark. 

“ Now all the bears were ready to cut off their 
claws that they might practice with the bow and 
arrow. But their chief, the old White Bear, was 
wise. 

“‘No/ said he, ‘let us not cut off our claws. 
If we do, we shall not be able to climb trees or 
to tear our food to pieces, and we shall all starve 
together. It is better to trust to the teeth and 
claws that the Master of Life has given us. 
Man’s weapons are not for. us.’ 

“ All the bears agreed to this, and the council 
broke up without any plan for dealing with their 
cruel enemies. 

“ The deer were the next to hold a council. 
Each one had some story to tell about the cruelty 
of men. Each one had lost his father or his mother, 
his wife or his children, his brother or his sister. 


HOW A-BAL-KA GOT HIS BLACK STRIPES 89 

“ After much talk, their chief, Little Deer, spoke. 
‘It is a law/ said he, ‘ among all the kindreds 
that each may kill to supply his needs. The 
men folk need our flesh to eat and our skins for 
clothing. 

“ 4 But there is another law. It is that no one 
shall kill cruelly or need- 
lessly. Upon such as do 
so, let us send pains and 
aches. Let us make their 
joints swell and become 
stiff*, so that they cannot 
follow us and kill us. 

Besides, let us make an- 
other law, that when a 
hunter kills one of the deer family, he must pray 
to the spirit of the deer for pardon. If he has 
killed to supply his needs and without cruelty, 
he shall be pardoned. If not, he shall become a 
helpless cripple.’ 

“ The deer people all agreed to this and sent 
word to the nearest Indian village, to tell the 
hunters about the new law. 

“ Since that time every Indian hunter is careful 



90 THE MAGIC SPEECH FLOWER 

to pray to the spirit of the deer which he has 

killed. 

“ Next the fishes and the snakes held a council. 
Each one had complaints to make against the 
cruelty of men. After much talk, A-tos-sa the 
chief of the snakes spoke. 

“‘We of the snake kindred,’ said he, ‘will 
afflict men with diseases of their nerves. They 
shall tremble and shake when there is nothing to 
be afraid of. And when they draw the bow- 
strings, their arrows shall go wide of the mark by 
reason of the unsteadiness of eye and hand. And 
we will send upon them in their sleep evil dreams. 
The ghosts of the snakes which they have need- 
lessly killed shall twine about them, with fearful 
fangs, ready to pierce their flesh, and the cold 
sweat of terror shall ooze from their skin, and 
they shall awake with cries and tremblings.’ 

“ After him the chief of the fishes spoke. 

“‘We,’ said he, ‘will afflict men with diseases 
of the stomach. In their sleep, they shall dream 
of eating raw or decayed fish and their appetites 
shall pass from them.’ 


HOW A-BAL-KA GOT HIS BLACK STRIPES 91 

“ These plans were agreed upon, and the council 
of the fishes and the snakes broke up. 

“ After this, the smaller animals, the birds and 
the insects, gathered themselves together in a com- 
mon council. Here, too, all were bitter against 
the useless cruelty of mankind. After all com- 
plaints had been heard, Am-wee-soo the Wasp 
addressed the council. 

“ ‘ Each creature/ said he, ‘ has the right to 
live. Our cruel enemies deprive us of our lives 
which they cannot restore. It is just that they 
shall be punished. We, the wasps, the bees, and 
the flies, will send upon men boils and wasting 
fevers, which shall sap their strength and bring 
them to their graves.’ 

“ ‘ And we/ said Da-hin-da the Bull Frog, ‘ will 
afflict men with colds and coughs, which shall 
make them weak and short of breath.’ 

<u We, the birds/ declared E-kes-ke the Blue J ay, 
‘ will afflict them with sores and diseases of the skin.’ 

“ And so it went on. Each of the tribes of the 
wild folk agreed to afflict mankind with some sort 
of sickness. 


92 THE MAGIC SPEECH FLOWER 

“ A-bal-ka the Chipmunk alone spoke in favor of 
the men. But he had hardly said ten words, 
before the others became so enraged that they 
fell upon and drove him from the council. He 
barely escaped with his life. 

“ And as it was, Up-wee-kis the Lynx fastened 
his claws on A-bal-ka’s neck and tore four gashes 
the length of his back. You can see the marks 
to this day. That is the way the chipmunk got 
his black stripes. ” 


XVI. HOW A-BAL'KA THE CHIPMUNK 
HELPED MEN 

“ The wounded ground squirrel hid himself in 
his den beneath the roots of a great oak, where 
his enemies could not get at him. There he 
remained until the other creatures had departed 
and his wounds were somewhat healed. 

“ When he was well enough to get about again, 
he visited the villages of the Red Men. Every- 
where he went, he found sickness and death. The 
kind-hearted chipmunk was sorry to see so much 
suffering and sorrow. So he revealed the secret 
plans which had been formed in the councils of 
the wild folk. 

“ Men now knew what was the cause of their 
troubles. But this knowledge did little good, 
since it did not heal their diseases or save them 
from death. For a time, it seemed as if the 
human race would be entirely destroyed. 

“In their despair, they appealed to their kind 
friend A-bal-ka the little ground squirrel. ‘ What 


94 THE MAGIC SPEECH FLOWER 

shall we do ? ’ they wailed. ‘ Cannot you, who 

are so kind of heart and so wise, help us ? ’ 

“ ‘ I will do my best/ he replied, ‘ but I must 
take time to think about it/ After turning the 
matter over in his mind carefully, he went about 
among the plants and trees and told them what 
had been done by the wild folk against their 
friends the men. 

“ ‘ Cannot you/ said he, ‘ do something to heal 
their diseases and save the human race from 
destruction ? ’ 

“ After much coming and going on the part of 
A-bal-ka the ground squirrel, and much talking 
and thinking on the part of the plants and trees, 
it was resolved that they, too, should hold coun- 
cils, to see what they could do toward checking 
and overcoming the evils which had befallen the 
human race. 

“ First the big trees of the forest and the shrubs 
held their council. They talked over the matter 
and agreed that each should do all in its power to 
furnish remedies to cure the diseases which the 
wild folk had inflicted upon men. 


HOW A-BAL-KA THE CHIPMUNK HELPED MEN 95 

“ { We,’ said tlie pine, the spruce, and the bal- 
sam trees, ‘ will give our gums and our balsam/ 
The slippery elm offered its bark ; the sassafras 
its roots ; the cherry tree its bark and its berries. 
One after another, the other trees and shrubs 
offered their berries, their bark, their leaves, or 
their roots as medicine to heal the diseases 
of men. 

“ Next the plants held their council and resolved 
to come to the aid of men in their distress. ‘ 1/ 
said the ginseng plant, ‘will give my roots to 
make a healing drink. It shall be good for head- 
aches and for cramps and for many other kinds 
of pains and aches/ 

“ ‘ And 1/ said the snake-root, ‘ will give my 
roots also for a healing drink. It shall cure 
fevers and coughs and many other diseases/ 

“ And so it went on. The silk weed, the skull- 
cap, catnip, boneset, the peppermint, wild ginger, 
wintergreen, and scores of other plants, all gladly 
offered their roots, their berries, or their leaves. 

“ Their number was so great that the little 


96 


THE MAGIC SPEECH FLOWER 


striped squirrel, wlio had attended both councils, 
was scarcely able to remember them all. 

“ After the councils were over, he went about 
among the villages of the Red Men and told 
them what the trees and the plants had said. 
They at once began to gather and prepare the 
medicines which they needed to cure the different 
diseases from which they suffered. And from this 
time, on account of the use of these medicines, 
they were sometimes able to heal their diseases 
and save many of their people from death. 

“ This is the story of how diseases came upon 
men and medicines to cure them were found. 

“ The Red Men were grateful to the little ground 
squirrel for the help he had given them, and loved 
him more than any other of the wild folk, and to 
this day no Indian boy will injure a chipmunk.” 



XVII. LITTLE LUKE AND MEE-KO THE 
RED SQUIRREL 

One day as little Luke was sitting on a fallen 
log in the woods, Mee-ko the Red Squirrel ran 
out on a branch over his head. There he sat up 
on his hind legs and began to chatter and scold 
and cough. 

He remembered the day when the little boy 
had stoned him away from the nest of O-pee-chee 
the Robin. Ever since that time he had never 
missed a chance of saying bad words at him. But 
the little boy didn’t mind Mee-ko’s scolding ; he 
only laughed at him for his bad temper and 
spitefulness. 

“ Mee-ko,” said he, “ what makes you cough 
so ? Tell me. I think there must be a story 
about it.” 


98 


THE MAGIC SPEECH FLOWER 


“ Well, suppose there is ? ” snapped Mee-ko. “ I 
wouldn’t tell you anyway. A Man Cub has no 
business to know the animal talk. I did my best 
to keep you from touching the Magic Speech 
Flower. I hate you ! I hate you ! I wish I were 
as big as my forefathers were, I’d drive you out 
of the woods ! ” 

“ Come, now, Mee-ko,” replied the boy, “ don’t 
be so spiteful. I haven’t done you any harm. I 
stopped you from stealing Mother O-pee-chee’s 
eggs, but you had no business with the eggs any- 
way. How would you like to have some one eat 
up your young ones'? Let bygones be bygones 
and tell me about your forefathers.” 

“ I’ll not be friends with you on any terms,” 
replied Mee-ko. “ I wish you’d stay about the 
farmhouse where you belong. You’ve no business 
sneaking about in the woods, disturbing us wood 
folk, and spying on us and tattling about us. Go 
away. You know too much now.” 

“ Yes, no doubt he knows too much about you. 
We all do,” said a voice. Little Luke looked up 
and there was old Ko-ko-ka the Big Owl, sitting 
in a hole in a tree. “ As for spying and tattling,” 


LITTLE LUKE AND MEE-KO THE RED SQUIRREL 99 

Ko-ko-ka went on, “ you are the worst of all the 
wild folk. It runs in your blood. The Mee-ko 
family have always been meddlers. It was the 
first of your tribe, as all the wood folk know, who, 
with his tattling tongue, set Mal-sum the Wicked 
Wolf trying to kill Gloos-cap the Good. Your 
foreparents were thieves and murderers too ; and 
you take after them. 

“ The Master of Life has formed some of us so 
that we must kill to live and for us to kill is law- 
ful. It is not so with you. You were made to 
live on seeds and nuts, yet Kag-ax the Weasel, 
whom we all hate, is scarcely more bloodthirsty 
than you are. And you are a coward to boot. 
You haven’t the courage to fight and you kill for 
pleasure and by stealth.” 

Mee-ko started to talk back at Ko-ko-ka, but 
the big owl snapped his beak angrily and rustled 
his wings. Mee-ko saw and heard and he didn’t 
wait to finish his remarks. He scurried along the 
branch, took a flying leap to the next tree, and 
disappeared. 

“Let him go. His room is better than his 
company,” remarked Ko-ko-ka. 


100 THE MAGIC SPEECH FLOWER 

“ That’s so,” said little Luke. “I never did like 
him much anyway. But tell me, what did he 
mean about his forefathers ? ” 

“ Well,” answered Ko-ko-ka, “ I’ve had a good 
nap and haven’t anything to do till sundown. So, 
if you like, I’ll tell you about it.” 



XVIII. THE STORY OF THE FIRST 
RED SQUIRRELS 

“Loxg, long ago,” began the old owl, “when 
the world was new, there dwelt upon the earth a, 
wise and good man whose name was Gloos-cap. 
He was a servant of the Master of Life, who had 
sent him to teach the men and all the other crea- 
tures everything that was good for them to know. 
So he went about from place to place, teaching 
the kindreds. 

“ He taught the Red Men how to build their 


102 THE MAGIC SPEECH FLOWER 

wigwams and to plant com and care for it. He 
taught the beavers how to build their lodges and 
the birds how to build their nests and care for 
their little ones. To all the kindreds he taught 
the things which each most needed to know. 

“ At first all the creatures were good and heeded 
the teachings of Gloos-cap. But after a time 
their hearts became evil. Gloos-cap often spoke 
to them and did his best to turn them from their 
wicked ways, but in vain. They grew more and 
more envious, spiteful, and quarrelsome. At last 
they became so wicked that they began to fight 
and kill each other. Worse than all else, the 
victors took to devouring the bodies of the slain. 

“ The good Gloos-cap was grieved and dis- 
gusted. He made up his mind to invite them to 
♦ a feast and try once more to turn them from their 
evil ways. When they came, he set before each 
one of them food in abundance. Although 
each had enough and more than enough for him- 
self, some of them were not satisfied. They began 
to quarrel and fight, each striving to take from the 
other his portion. 

“ Now Gloos-cap was a mighty magician. By 


THE STORY OF THE FIRST RED SQUIRRELS 103 
his magic power, he caused the food to turn to 
ashes in the mouths of the greedy ones. As soon 
as they tasted the ashes, they tried to talk and 
scold, but they could scarcely say two words on 
account of the ashes which got into their throats. 

“ The angry Gloos-cap waved his hand over 
them, and by his magic power the quarrelsome, 
envious, and greedy ones disappeared. In their 
place there were a number of red squirrels, who 
chattered and scolded and coughed as red squir- 
rels always do even to this day. These were the 
foreparents of all the red squirrels in the world. 

“ ‘ Now,’ said Gloos-cap to the other creatures, 
‘take warning by the fate of these who are now 
squirrels and cease from being quarrelsome, envi- 
ous, and greedy.’ ” 


XIX. HOW THE RED SQUIRREL BECAME SMALL 

“ Now in those days Mee-ko the Bed Squirrel 
was much larger than he is to-day, — as large as 
Moo-ween the Bear; and his temper was even 
as his size. He desired most earnestly to take 
revenge upon Gloos-cap the Good for what he had 
done to him. So he sought out the brother of 
Gloos-cap, even Mal-sum the Wicked Wolf, and 
•tempted him to kill his brother. 

“ ‘ I would gladly slay him/ said Mal-sum, ‘ but 
I know not how it may be done. On account of 
his magic power, there is only one thing in all the 
world that can hurt him, and I know not what 
that is/ 

“‘Go you/ said Mee-ko, ‘and pretend to be 
friendly with him and find out his secret. Then 
you may slay him/ 

“ Mal-sum thought this good advice, and 
acted according to it. For many days he behaved 
to his brother with pretended kindness, always 
watching to find out his secret. 


HOW THE RED SQUIRREL BECAME SMALL 105 

“ ‘ My brother/ said he, one day when they 
were hunting together, ‘you know that there is 
but one thing in all the world that can hurt either 
of us, — one thing for you, and another for me. 
Tell me what it is with which you may be slain ? ’ 

“ Now Gloos-cap the Good knew the wicked- 
ness and spite that lay hid in the heart of his 
brother. So he said, ‘ Nay, but tell me first, what 
it is with which you may be slain ? ’ 

“ And the wicked Mal-sum thought in his heart, 
‘ What would it matter even if he knew the truth ? 
I shall slay him before he can harm me.’ So he 
answered truly, ‘ By the stroke of a fern-root only 
can I be slain. Now what is your secret? ’ 

“ But Gloos-cap, knowing his brother’s wicked- 
ness, was unwilling to trust him. So he answered 
falsely and craftily, ‘By the stroke of an owl’s 
feather it is fated that I shall be some day slain.’ 

“Now the wicked Mal-sum was greatly rejoiced 
in heart at hearing this. So he left his brother, 
making some excuse, and went off into the woods 
alone. There finding an owl, one of my fore- 
parents, he shot him, and, taking some of his 
feathers, returned home. 


106 


THE MAGIC SPEECH FLOWER 


“ That night while Gloos-cap was sleeping, the 
wicked Mal-sum arose, and taking the owl’s feather, 
struck his brother upon the forehead. But Gloos- 
cap, awakened by the blow, only laughed. ‘ It is 
not really a feather,’ said he, ‘ but a pine-root that 
shall end my life. I was but joking with you this 
morning.’ 

“ But the wicked Mal-sum feigned that he, too, 
had been only in sport, and the two brothers lay 
down again and slept. 

“ But the next night, while Gloos-cap was sleep- 
ing, Mal-sum again arose and struck him upon the 
forehead with a pine-root. 

“ This time Gloos-cap, seeing the wickedness of 
his brother’s heart, and that he was bound to take 
his life, arose and drove Mal-sum forth into the 
woods. Then he went away and sat down by the 
brookside, considering what he should do. 

Truly,’ said he to himself, ‘he will yet slay 
me. If he but knew that a flowering rush is fated 
to be my bane, my life would not be safe for a 
moment.’ 

“Now it chanced that the beaver was hidden 
among the reeds in the brook and heard what 


HOW THE RED SQUIRREL BECAME SMALL 107 

Gloos-cap had said. So he went off to Mal-sum, 
and told him his brother’s secret for a reward. 

“ The reward was that Mal-sum by his magic 
power should grant whatever the beaver might 
ask. So the beaver asked that he might have 
wings like a wood dove. But Mal-sum only 
laughed at him. ‘ Wings for you ! ’ he chuckled ; 
‘ you, who have nothing to do but paddle about in 
the mud and eat bark ! what need have you of 
wings ? Besides, how would you with that flat tail 
of yours look with wings ! 9 

“Now you may be sure that the beaver was 
angry at being thus made sport of. So he went 
straightway to Gloos-cap and told him that Mal- 
sum had found out his secret. 

“ ‘ Now,’ said Gloos-cap to himself, ‘ I must 
needs slay him. He does naught but evil in the 
world, and I have not yet finished the good work 
which the Master of Life sent me to do.’ That 
night he arose and, talking a fern-root, smote the 
wicked Mal-sum on the head so that he died. 

“Now Gloos-cap knew that Mee-ko the Red 
Squirrel had tempted his brother to try to slay 
him, and since Mee-ko was so large and of such 


108 


THE MAGIC SPEECH FLOWER 


an evil temper, he feared that he would do much 
harm. So meeting Mee-ko one day in the woods, 
he said, 4 Tell me, what would you do if you should 
see a man ? ’ 

“ ‘ If I should see a man/ answered Mee-ko, ‘ I 
would dig up the trees of the forest, so that they 
would fall upon and slay him. Then I would 
feast upon his dead body.’ 

“ ‘ You are too large and too wicked/ said Gloos- 
cap. ‘ I fear I cannot change your temper, but I 
can your size/ So he passed his hands over the 
big red squirrel’s back, and behold, he shrunk 
and shriveled until he became small, even as 
small as he is at this day. But his temper re- 
mained almost as bad as before. Even to-day, he 
can scarcely see any creature without scolding and 
saying bad words.” 


XX. LITTLE LUKE AND MOTHER MIT-CHEE THE 
RUFFLED PARTRIDGE 

Up in the woods on the side of the mountain 
Mother Mit-chee the Ruffled Partridge built her 
nest, close beside the trail. It was nothing but a 
little hollow in the ground, lined with leaves. 

It was in plain sight and you would have sup- 
posed that anyone going along the trail would 
have seen it. But they didn’t. Old John the 
Indian and Sam the hired man passed it a dozen 
times and never noticed it. Even Old Boze did 
not find it, although he followed Sam up and 
down the trail many times. 

You see, Mother Mit-chee knew enough to sit 
perfectly still, and her mottled feathers blended so 
exactly with the tree trunks and the dead leaves 
about her that only the sharp eyes of the Finder 
of the Magic Flower ever found her out. 

Little Luke saw her one day as he was walking 
up the trail beside Sam the hired man, and with 
Old Boze following at his heels. But he went 


110 THE MAGIC SPEECH FLOWER 

right on by, as if he had not seen Mother Mit-chee 
at all. He did not want Sam or Old Boze to see 
her, for he knew they could not be trusted. They 
would be almost sure to try to kill Mother Mit- 
chee, or at the very least, they would rob her 
nest. 

The next morning the little boy went up the 
trail alone, to pay Mother Mit-chee a visit. 
“ Good morning, Mother Mit-chee,” said he, “ I 
saw you yesterday, but Sam and Old Boze didn’t, 
and I wouldn’t tell them.” 

“ I knew you saw me,” replied Mother Mit-chee, 
“and I knew you wouldn’t tell. You are too 
kind-hearted for that, especially since you found 
the Magic Flower and learned the animal talk. 
We all trust you. You may come to see me as 
often as you like, but be careful not to leave any 
trail near my nest. I don’t want Old Boze nosing 
around here. And when you come along with any 
of the house people, just go right by and don’t 
look this way. I am more afraid of Old John the 
Indian than of anyone else. He looked right at 
me the other day and I was sure he saw me. I 
was scared, I tell you. I was all ready to fly 


LITTLE LUKE AND MOTHER MIT-CHEE 111 

away. But he didn't see me. If he had, I never 
should have seen my eggs again.” 

“ All right,” said the little boy, “Til do just as 
you say.” And after some more talk, he went on 
up the trail to visit some of his other friends among 
the wild folk. 

Many times during the days that followed the 
little boy stopped and talked with the Mother 
Partridge. “If you will come to-morrow,” said 
she, one day, “I’ll show you as fine a brood of 
partridge chicks as anyone could wish to see.” 

“I’ll be sure to come,” answered the little boy, 
“for I want to see them very much.” 

As he came up the next day, Mother Mit-chee 
stepped off her nest. “There,” said she, “there 
they are. Now aren’t they fine ones'?” 

The little boy looked. In the nest there were 
a dozen of the daintiest, downiest, little creatures 
he had ever seen. They were scarcely bigger than 
an acorn. “ They surely are a fine brood,” said 
he. “Aren’t you afraid that something will catch 
them?” 

“Of course I am afraid. I’m always afraid,” 
said Mother Mit-chee, “but the creature that 


112 THE MAGIC SPEECH FLOWER 

catches them will have to be pretty sharp. I 
know a trick or two that will fool most of the 
wild folk, and the house people as well. You 
come up to-morrow and 111 show you. They are 
pretty young now, and I don’t want to disturb 
them unless I have to.” 

The next day the little boy found the nest 
empty. He looked carefully about for Mother 
Mit-chee and her brood. Suddenly something 
rose almost from under his feet, and whizzed off 
through the wood. There was a sound like an 
explosion, followed by thunder, which scared the 
little boy so that he jumped. But he saw that it 
was only Mother Mit-chee, and he had seen her 
do that before. 

He knew that the chicks were near at hand, 
and looked around carefully for them. 

Pretty soon Mother Mit-chee sailed around 
through the woods and dropped to the ground but 
a little way from the boy. She seemed to have 
been hurt, badly hurt. One wing dragged as if it 
was broken, and she limped sadly. 

“Ha, ha,” laughed the little boy, “you can’t 
fool me with that trick. You needn’t keep it up 


LITTLE LUKE AND MOTHER MIT-CHEE 113 

any longer, I shan’t follow you. I know that you 
are not hurt at all. Old John told me all about 
it. He told me that he saw you playing that 
very trick on Kee-wuks the Red Fox only the 
other day.” 

“Well, well!” said Mother Mit-chee. “Did 
Old John see that? I didn’t know he was any- 
where about. Yes,” she went on, “ Kee-wuks 



thought he had me that time. I let him get close 
up. Then he jumped for me ; but when he landed 
where I was, I wasn’t there! If I hadn’t made 
him believe he could catch me he might have 
found my chicks.” 


114 


THE MAGIC SPEECH FLOWER 


“Well,” said Little Luke, “I heard Sam say 
that no one could find a young partridge chick, 
but I’m going to try it. You know since I found 
the Magic Flower my eyes are sharper than those 
of any of the other house people.” 

“ All right,” said Mother Mit-chee, “ I’ll call 
them out. I’m afraid if you walk around there, 
you’ll step on them ; they’re right around your 
feet.” And she began calling to the chicks. 
“ Kreet, kreet, come out, come out, right away,” 
she called. 

Right before little Luke a dead leaf that was 
curled up seemed to come to life, but it wasn’t 
really the leaf. It was the partridge chick that 
had squatted upon it that moved. Just before 
him, little Luke saw a tiny bunch under the dead 
leaves. He reached down and seized it, but 
very carefully. It was another one of the 
chicks. And the ground about him seemed 
alive with the little ones as they came out at 
their mother’s call. 

“Well done,” said Mother Mit-chee, “ your eyes 
certainly are good. But handle him carefully. 
Don’t squeeze too tight. There now, you’ve hurt 


LITTLE LUKE AND MOTHER MIT-CHEE 


115 


liim ! ” (The little one was peeping as if in 
pain.) 

Little Luke set him very carefully on the 
ground. “Don’t worry,” said he, “he isn’t hurt, 
he’s only a little scared.” 

“Well,” said Mother Mit-chee, “I must take 
these babies of mine down to the spring and teach 
them how to drink. They have never tasted 
water yet.” 

“ Kreet, kreet, come along, come along,” called 
Mother Mit-chee. 

“ Peep, peep, we’re coming, we’re coming, 
mother,” said the little ones. And they all started 
down the mountainside toward the spring. 

It took a good while to get there, for the chicks 
were young, and their little legs so short and so 
weak that Mother Mit-chee had to wait for them a 
good many times. But it was a pretty sight. 
The yellow, downy, little fellows marched along 
boldly behind their mother. Sometimes she would 
go on a little way ahead. Then she would stop 
and call, “Kreet, kreet, come along, children,” 
and the little fellows would race to see who could 
catch up first. 


116 THE MAGIC SPEECH FLOWER 

Some of them were not so strong as others, and 
at times they would squat upon the ground to 
rest. Mother Mit-chee would wait as long as she 
thought proper, and then tell them to “ come 
along.” And away they would go down the 
mountainside. 

At last they reached the spring. The little 
ones had never seen water before, and did not 
know what to do. But Mother Mit-chee took a 
drop of clear, cold water in her bill, and raised her 
head before she swallowed it. Each chick copied 
her motion exactly. It was fun for the little boy 
to watch them. Nearly the whole dozen would 
dip their little bills into the water at once, and 
raise their heads to swallow it, as they had seen 
their mother do. 

“ Mother Mit-chee,” said the little boy, after 
they had all finished drinking, “ what makes you 
raise your head before you swallow the water ? ” 

“ Oh,” said Mother Mit-chee, “ that is our 
way of giving thanks to the Master of Life for 
the cool, sweet water. Our family learned to 
do it a long time ago, and we have always done 
it since.” 


LITTLE LUKE AND MOTHER MIT-CHEE 117 

“That sounds as if there might be a story 
about it,” said the little boy, who was always on 
the watch for stories. 

“Well,” said Mother Mit-chee, “there is a story 
about it.” 


XXI. WHY THE FEATHERED FOLK RAISE THEIR 
HEADS WHEN THEY DRINK 

“ A LONG time ago,” she went on, “ there came 
a summer when no rain fell for many weeks. As 
you know, all the feathered folk can get along 
pretty well if there are only dew-drops to drink. 
But after a time there was no dew, and even the 
grass withered and died. 

“ All the feathered tribes suffered terribly from 
thirst. At last they gathered together in a great 
council, and asked the Master of Life to take pity 
on them in their sad state. He heard their prayer, 
and sent the angel who cares for the wild folk to 
speak to them. 

“‘The Master of Life/ said he, ‘lias seen your 
sufferings and heard your prayers. He is merciful 
and kind, and has given orders to the Angel of 
the Bain Clouds to supply your needs. Look!’ 
said he, pointing to the west. All the feathered 
folk looked, and behold, in the distance, the dark 
Rain Clouds were already flying toward them, 


WHY FEATHERED FOLK RAISE THEIR HEADS 119 

driven by the breath of the Angel of the 
Winds. 

“ Soon the rain began to fall, the grass, the 
flowers, and the trees revived, the springs were 
filled, and the sweet murmur of running water was 
again heard in the brooks and rivers. The wild 
folk drank and were refreshed. 

“ Before the Angel of the Wild Folk departed, 
he said, ‘From this time on forever when you 
drink, you must raise your head as a token of 
thankfulness to the Master of Life who has sent 
you the refreshing rain/ 

“ If you watch them, you will notice that all 
the feathered folk show their gratitude to the 
Master of Life in the same way.” 


XXII. LITTLE LUKE AND FATHER MIT-CHEE 


“ Where is Father Mit-chee?” asked the little 
boy of the Mother Partridge, one day. 

“ I don’t know,” she answered; “ I haven’t seen 
him since I began to sit.” 

“Well,” said the little boy, “I think he’s a 
mean, lazy scamp, to go off and leave you to take 
care of the family alone.” 

“Well,” said Mother Mit-chee, “it would be 
rather nice to have some help. I feel a bit lone- 
some sometimes, especially when I notice how 
kind Father O-loo-la is to his wife and family. 
But it isn’t the custom in our family. The fathers 
leave the mothers to take care of the family. 
They never come near us until their children are 
able to take care of themselves. I’ve taught 
these youngsters of mine what to eat and where 
to find it. They have learned to fly pretty 
well, and taken some lessons in whirring, so 
that they can frighten their enemies. I wouldn’t 
be surprised to see Father Mit-chee any day. 


LITTLE LUKE AND FATHER MIT-CHEE 121 

Why, there he is now ! I can tell his drumming 
any time.” 

The little boy listened. Far off in the distance 
he heard thump ! — thump ! — thump ! — thump ! — 
tlir-r-r-r-r-r ! 

“ Let’s go and meet him,” said Mother Mit-chee. 
“ He doesn’t know you, so I’ll go ahead. Then 
he won’t be frightened.” 

So they went through the woods, Mother Mit- 
chee in the lead, till they came in sight of the 
Father Partridge. He was standing on a fallen 
log and drumming. Just how he did it the little 
boy could not tell. He flapped his wings like a 
rooster, and seemed to beat the log or his own 
sides. As the little boy watched him, he thought 
that perhaps the sound was made by Father Mit- 
chee’s wings striking together over his back. 
When he saw Mother Mit-chee coming, he walked 
up and down the log very proudly. Then he 
stopped and drummed louder than ever. 

“Well,” said Mother Mit-chee, “so you’ve come 
back at last, have you % Here are your children. 
Don’t they look as if I had taken good care of 
them % ” 


122 


THE MAGIC SPEECH FLOWER 


“ Why, yes,” replied Father Mit-chee, “they’re 
looking pretty well. I’ve heard of you several 
times, and knew that you were getting along all 
right. But who’s that over yonder?” he asked, 
as he caught sight of Little Luke. 

“ Oh,” answered Mother Mit-chee, “ you’ve 
heard of him before. He’s the boy who found 
the Magic Flower, and learned the animal talk.” 

That was the way little Luke came to know 
Father Mit-chee. 


XXIII. THE STORY OF THE FIRST PARTRIDGE 


“ Father Mit-chee,” said little Luke one day 
as the two were sitting together on the drumming 
log, “ can’t you tell me a story? ” 

“Why, yes,” said Father Mit-chee, “I suppose 
I might. I might tell you the story of the first 
partridge.” 

Long, long ago an Indian was hunting in the 
woods. As he went along, he heard a noise as 
of people jumping and dancing on hard ground. 
“ That is queer,” said he to himself, “ I will go 
and see what is going on.” 

So he turned his steps in the direction of the 
sound, and went on through the forest swiftly but 
silently. Though at the first the noise had seemed 
to come from a place near at hand, it was a long 
time before he came in sight of the dancers. 
They were a man and a woman, and they were 
jumping and dancing about a tree, in the top of 
which was Hes-puns the Raccoon. 


124 THE MAGIC SPEECH FLOWER 

Now all three of them, the raccoon as well as 
the man and woman, were magicians. The man 
and the woman were enemies to the other, and as 
their magic was stronger than his, he had turned 
himself into a raccoon to escape 
them. 

The hunter did not know 
this. He went toward them, 
and as he drew near, he saw 
that the dancers had worn a 
ditch waist-deep about the tree. 

He went up to them and asked them why they 
did this strange thing. 

Now the man and the woman did not want 
the hunter to know the truth of the matter. So 
they said, “We are trying to wear away the earth 
from the root of this tree, so that we can get it 
down and catch Hes-puns. We are hungry and 
we have no tomahawk.” 

“Well,” said the hunter, “I have a good 
tomahawk and I will cut down the tree for you. 
But you must give me the skin of Hes-puns.” 

They agreed to this, and the hunter soon 
brought the tree to the ground. They caught 



THE STORY OF THE FIRST PARTRIDGE 125 

the raccoon and killed and skinned him. Then 
they gave the skin to the hunter, who went 
home. 

A few days after this, the hunter saw a 
stranger coming toward his lodge. On his head 
he wore a strange kind of cap which looked like 
a small wigwam. When the hunter went out to 
meet him, the stranger took off his cap and set it 
upon the ground. At once it grew larger and 
larger until it became a beautiful lodge with 
several fine rooms in it. 

The hunter was greatly amazed, but invited 
the stranger into his own lodge and set food 
before him. While eating, the visitor chanced to 
see the pelt of Hes-puns hanging on one of the 
lodge poles. 

Now he was a magician and the brother of the 
one who had turned himself into a raccoon. As 
soon as he saw the skin, he knew it by certain 
marks to be the skin of his brother, and supposed 
that the hunter had killed him. So he thought 
how he might be revenged upon him. 

“ That is a fine pelt you have there,” said he to 
the hunter. “ I should like to buy it.” 


126 


THE MAGIC SPEECH FLOWER 


“Yes,” replied the hunter, “it is a fine one, but 
I do not care to sell it.” 

“ I will give you more than it is worth,” said 
the magician. And he offered everything that he 
had except his magic wigwam. 

“No, I do not care to sell it,” answered the 
hunter to each new offer. But finally, he said, 
“If you will give me that fine lodge of yours, 
you may have the skin.” 

“ It’s a bargain,” said the magician; “ the lodge 
is yours. But you must keep me overnight. 
We will sleep in your new lodge, which is much 
finer and better furnished than this.” 

“Very well,” replied the hunter, “but you 
must show me how to carry my new lodge upon 
my head as you did.” 

“ Oh, that is easy,” returned the magician, 
“you just pick it up and put it on your head. 
Come out and try it now.” 

The hunter went out and picked up the lodge 
and put it upon his head. He found he could 
carry it easily, for it was as light as a wicker 
basket. 

When he put it upon the ground, it at once 


THE STORY OF THE FIRST PARTRIDGE 127 

grew as large as before. So the hunter and his 
wife and the stranger went into the lodge. Its 
new owner was greatly pleased with it. It con- 
tained several large rooms, in one of which was a 
very fine bed covered with a white bear skin. On 
that bed the hunter and his wife lay down to sleep, 
while the stranger found a bed in another room. 

In the morning when the hunter and his wife 
awoke, they were more delighted than ever with 
their new lodge. It seemed large and' airy, and 
from the beams high above their heads hung all 
kinds of things good to eat. There were ducks 
and geese, rabbits and venison, ears of corn, and 
bags of maple sugar. 

In their joy, the man and his wife sprang out 
of bed and made a jump toward the dainties. 
At once the white bear skin melted and ran away, 
for it was nothing but the snow of winter. At the 
same time, their arms spread out into wings, and 
they flew up to the food, which was only the early 
buds of the birch tree on which they hung. For 
the magician had cast a spell upon the man and 
the woman and they had become partridges and 
had been sheltering themselves from the storms of 


128 


THE MAGIC SPEECH FLOWER 


winter under a snowdrift, after the manner of their 
kind, and now came forth to greet the pleasant 
spring. 

And these two were the first partridges, the fore- 
parents of all the partridges that are now. in the 
w r orld. 

“ That is a strange story,” said the little boy. 
“ I thank you for telling it. But now I must go 
home. Good-bye for to-day.” 


XXIV. WHY PARTRIDGES DRUM 

A FEW 7 days later little Luke went up into the 
woods again. As he walked along the trail, he 
heard F ather Mit-chee drumming. He knew where 
the drumming log was, so he went over to it and 
sat down on one end. 

“ Father Mit-chee,” said he, when the old par- 
• tridge had finished, “ I noticed a queer thing about 
your drumming. One day I heard Old John 
pounding on a canoe he was building. At a 
distance your drumming sounded just like his 
pounding. Why was that?” 

“Well,” said Father Mit-chee, “I suppose it was 
because Grandfather Mit-chee, the first partridge, 
was a canoe builder. When he stopped building 
canoes he kept up his drumming.” 

“ Tell me about it, please,” said the little boy. 

“All right,” said Father Mit-chee, and he began 
this story. 

“ In the olden days, Mit-chee the Partridge was 
the canoe builder for all the birds. Once upon a 


130 THE MAGIC SPEECH FLOWER 

time they all came together on the bank of the 
river, and each one got into his own bark. Truly 
that was a fine sight to see ! 

“ Kit-chee the Great Eagle paddled off* first, 
using the ends of his broad wings. After him 



went Ko-ko-ka the Owl; Kusk the Crane; Wee- 
so-wee the Bluebird ; and Cliip-sis the Blackbird. 
Even tiny A-la-moo the Humming Bird had a 
neat little boat. But his wings were so small 
that Mit-chee had made for him a dainty little 
paddle. Some of the birds thought it rather too 


WHY PARTRIDGES DRUM 


131 


large, for it was almost an inch long. So the 
fleet of canoes stood bravely out to sea, and after 
a pleasant voyage returned safely to land. 

“ Now the partridge had not taken part in the 
voyage, for he had built no canoe for himself. 
4 It's great sport/ said the other birds, on their 
return. 4 Why didn’t you build a canoe for 
yourself? ’ But Mit-chee only looked wise and 
drummed upon the log on which he was sitting, 
and the sound was the sound of one making a 
canoe. 

44 But the birds kept asking him to build a canoe 
for himself and join them. At last he remarked 
that he was about to do so, and that when he had 
finished it, it would be a wonder, something new 
such as no eye had ever before beheld. 

44 Then he went off into the woods by himself 
and was seen no more for several days. When 
he came back, he invited all the birds to come 
and see his wonderful canoe, — one he had built 
for himself on an entirely new plan. 

44 Now Mit-chee had reasoned that if a boat 
having two ends could be rowed in two ways, one 
which was all ends (that is, round) could be rowed 


132 THE MAGIC SPEECH FLOWER 

in every direction. So he had made a canoe 
exactly like a nest, perfectly round. When the 
honest feathered folk saw this, they were greatly 
amazed and wondered that so simple a thing had 
not occurred to all of them. 

“But when Mit-chee got into his new canoe 
and began to paddle, their wonder turned into 
amusement, for he made no headway at all. 
However hard he worked, the canoe simply turned 
round and round. 

“ After wearying himself, and all in vain, he went 
ashore, and flew off far inland. There he hid 
himself for shame under the low bushes in the 
woods, and there he has lived ever since. But at 
certain seasons, when he thought no one was look- 
ing, he would get upon a dead log and drum with 
his wings, and the sound was like the sound which 
he used to make when he was building canoes. 

“And so his children have always done since 
that day.” 



XXV. MOTHER WA-POOSE AND OLD BOZE 
THE HOUND 

Up at the edge of the woods the wood-cutters 
had felled a tree into the open pasture. As they 
trimmed the trunk, they threw the smaller branches 
into a big pile. Uncle Mark intended to burn 
them when they became dry enough, but forgot 
all about it. There they had lain for years, till 
they were dead and covered with moss. Over the 
heap of half-rotted brushwood a tangle of wild 
vines had spread, and up through them a thicket 
of blackberry bushes had grown. 

This was just the place for a rabbit nest. 
Mother Wa-poose could squat anywhere in the 
pile and her brown coat would blend with the 
dead brush so perfectly that only the keenest eye 


134 THE MAGIC SPEECH FLOWER 

could see her. No hawk or owl could swoop 
through such a tangle of vines and brush, and no 
fox or dog could creep through the close-set hedge 
of thorny blackberry bushes without losing a good 
deal of his hide. 

Through the thicket Mother Wa-poose cut two 
or three paths just wide enough for herself, but 
not big enough for a dog or a fox. In the middle 
of the brush pile, she dug a little round hollow 
about a foot across and lined it with coarse grass. 
On the top of this she placed another lining of 
finer grass. Then she filled the hollow quite full 
of soft fur from her own coat. No bird’s nest 
could be cosier or safer. To be sure, it was on 
the ground, but the land sloped and no water 
could settle into it. 

One day as little Luke was passing by the 
brush pile, his keen eye saw Mother Wa-poose. 
“ There,” said he to himself, “is just the place 
for a rabbit’s nest. I’ll take a look at Mother 
Wa-poose’s babies.” 

So he got down on his hands and knees, 
pulled the bushes apart, and crept into the 
thicket. He saw the nest, but could not get 


MOTHER WA-POOSE AND OLD BOZE 135 

quite to it because of the sharp thorns on the 
blackberry bushes. 

“ Good morning, Man- cub,” said Mother Wa- 
poose. 

“ Good morning, Mother Wa-poose,” said little 
Luke; “ don’t be afraid, I only want to take a 
look at your babies.” 

“ Oh, I’m not afraid,” said Mother Wa-poose. 
“None of us are afraid of you any more. Look 
all you want to. But don’t come any nearer. 
I am afraid you will open a path for Kee-wuk the 
Red Fox, or for Old Boze the Hound. Both of 
them have been around here several times. 
They know that I and my babies are here, but 
they can’t get in. Old Boze tried it the other 
day, but went back to the house with a pair of 
bloody ears for his pains.” 

“ Yes, I noticed his ears,” said little Luke, 
“ and wondered what he had been up to.” 

The little boy sat down as comfortably as he 
could and looked at Mother Wa-poose and her 
babies. 

“Mother Wa-poose,” said he after a while, 
“ what makes you wriggle your nose so ? ” 


136 


THE MAGIC SPEECH FLOWER 


“Oh;” said Mother Wa-poose, “I do that to 
keep my smeller clear. You see we have so 
many enemies that we have to be on the watch 
all the time, and I can smell a fox or a dog 
almost as far as I can see them. You see I 
always sit with my nose to the wind, and my 
ears in the other direction. My nose tells me 
who is coming in front; my ears tell me who 
is coming from behind; and my eyes keep 
watch on both sides. I sleep most of the day, 
but my eyes, my ears, and my nose are always 
awake. Why, I knew you were coming almost 
half an hour ago. My nose told me. It is only 
in such a place as this that my three sentinels 
ever get any rest. 

“ When I haven’t any babies to care for, I like 
to sit in a more open place in the sun. So long as 
I have a chance to run each way, I am not much 
afraid of anybody. And if it wasn’t for the men 
with their dreadful fire-sticks, we of the Wa- 
poose family would have a pretty safe and easy 
time of it.” 

Just then the deep bay of a hound was heard. 
“There,” said Mother Wa-poose, “there’s Old 


MOTHER WA-POOSE AND OLD BOZE 137 

Boze now. Would you like to see how I can 
fool him ? ” 

“ I would indeed,” said little Luke, “ if you are 
not afraid. Old Boze is a wise, old hound, and 
he may catch you.” 

“ Oh, I’m not afraid of that,” said Mother 
Wa-poose. “ You just sit here where you can 
see, and I’ll go down there and give Old Boze 
the time of his life. I think he must be trailing 
me now by the sound. I was down in the 
garden last night after a meal of cabbage leaves, 
and I suppose he has found my track.” 

Mother Wa-poose sprang out of her hiding 
place and went down the slope ten feet at a 
bound. She crossed her old track near the pas- 
ture bars and hopped slowly on to the edge of 
the blackberry patch. There she sat till she was 
sure that Old Boze had found her new trail. 
Then she skipped here and there through the 
briar patch till she came out on the other side. 
With a great leap she cleared the fence and ran 
on down through the cornfield. When she was 
clear of that, she ran along beside the stone wall 
till she came to the creek. Over the creek she 


138 


THE MAGIC SPEECH FLOWER 


went at one leap; then down through the alder 
bushes till she came back again into the pasture. 
Two or three times she crossed the brook. Then 
she came around up through the woods to the 
brush pile, wdiere little Luke was sitting. From 
its lower edge there was a good view all down 
through the pasture. There Mother Wa-poose 
sat up and watched the old hound, her big, 
round eyes shining with glee. 

Old Boze followed her trail into the blackberry 
thicket. Bound and round he followed the scent, 
pushing his way through the stout bushes. Every 
bush was armed with a thousand sharp hooks, 
and every hook clung to the old hound’s skin. 
He fairly whimpered with pain. Now and then 
he gave tongue, until at last he came out on the 
other side. But his ears were in tatters and blood 
drops oozed from his skin in a thousand places. 

At the fence he was balked. Up and down 
beside the fence he ran several times, nosing the 
ground for the scent. 

“Look at him! Look at him,” said Mother 
Wa-poose, fairly shaking her sides with laughter. 
“ Isn’t he a sight? But that won’t teach him any- 


MOTHER WA-POOSE AND OLD BOZE 139 

thing. He’ll do it the next time. Rabbit chasing 
must be lots of fun for him.” 

“ I really do think he enjoys it,” said little Luke. 

Old Boze jumped over the fence and found the 
trail again. He followed it until he came to the 
creek. There he was puzzled. But he crossed 
the brook and found the trail at last. Over in 
the pasture he lost it again. Mother Wa-poose 
had been too cunning for him this time. After 
nosing the ground in all directions for a long 
time in vain, the old hound gave it up, and went 
back to the house. 

“ You see,” said Mother Wa-poose, “if it wasn’t 
for the fire-sticks, the hounds would not bother us 
much. Why will the house people be so cruel to 
us? We never harm them. Last fall the fire- 
sticks killed six of my children.” And Mother 
Wa-poose’s eyes filled with tears at the thought. 

“It is too bad,” said little Luke, “but Uncle 
Mark says that if some of the rabbits weren’t 
killed off every year, they’d soon eat all the grass 
from the sheep and cows, and we wouldn’t be able 
to raise any cabbages or turnips at all. Besides, 
you know, the house people like rabbit’s flesh to 


140 


THE MAGIC SPEECH FLOWER 


eat. I used to eat it myself, but I’ll never do it 
any more.” 

“ How dreadful!” said Mother Wa-poose. “I 
don’t see how anybody can eat flesh. Clover, 
or a nice, tender cabbage leaf is a good deal 
better.” 


XXVI. MOTHER WA-POOSE AND OLD KLAWS 
THE HOUSE CAT 

A FEW days after little Luke saw something 
that gave him a new feeling of respect for Mother 
Wa-poose. 

He was going up to make her another visit. 
As he came near the brush pile, he heard a thump ! 
thump ! thump ! “ That’s Mother Wa-poose,” said 
he to himself, “ and she’s angry about something. 
1 wonder what can be the matter.” 

He went around to the other side of the brush 
pile and then he knew. There was Old Klaws 
the House Cat, his tail twitching and his round 
eyes shining hungrily. 

Just as the boy caught sight of the old cat, 
Mother Wa-poose sprang out of the thicket. She 
sprang straight at Old Klaws. The cat snarled 
and shrank to one side. But Mother Wa-poose 
was too quick for him. As she went over, she 
struck him a sounding thwack with her hind 
feet. It fairly made the old cat’s ribs crack, and 


142 


THE MAGIC SPEECH FLOWER 


he rolled over and over down the slope. In 
a second he sprang up, snarling and spitting. 
Again Mother Wa-poose sprang at him. This 
time she hit him squarely on the side of the head. 
Old Klaws went down, rolling over several times 



before he could right himself. The last thwack 
took all the fight out of him. He scrambled to 
his feet and went flying down the hillside at his 
best speed. 

“ There,” said old Mother Wa-poose, “I guess 
hell know enough to keep away from here after 
this.” 


MOTHER WA-POOSE AND OLD KLAWS 143 

“Why, Mother Wa-poose,” said the little boy, 
“ I didn’t know that you were such a fighter.” 

“Well,” said Mother Wa-poose, “we of the 
Wa-poose family never fight if we can help it. 
We’d rather run. But we aren’t really afraid of 
anything our size. And this time I couldn’t run. 
If I had, Old Klaws would surely have carried off 
one of my babies. He got one of them this 
spring. You remember the one you took away 
from him. He is grown up and has gone out into 
the world for himself now. You know we Wa- 
pooses have three or four families each year.” 



XXVII. THE RABBIT DANCE 

“ Would you like to see a rabbit dance?” asked 
Father Wa-poose one day in September. 

“ Indeed, I should,” replied little Luke. 

“ Come out to-night then,” said Wa-poose, “and 
sit down in the shadow of the stone wall in the 
corner of the clover field. There you will see 
something you have never seen before.” 

“ 111 be there,” said the boy. 

That night little Luke went up to his room 
early. He took off his shoes and threw them 
heavily upon the floor, and blew out the light. 


THE RABBIT DANCE 


145 


Then he jumped upon his bed, so that it creaked 
loudly. Without taking off his clothes, he got 
under the blankets, and when Aunt Martha looked 
in, he seemed to be sound asleep. She did not 
look into the closet to see whether his clothes 
were hanging up there or not. 

When he thought Aunt Martha had gone to 
bed, the little boy got up quietly, took his shoes 
in his hand, and slipped softly down the back 
stairs. Silently he unlocked and opened the 
kitchen door, and went out into the moonlight. 

He did not feel that he was doing quite right, 
but he was afraid to ask Aunt Martha. You see 
he was afraid that she might ask questions, which 
he could not answer without telling about the 
Magic Flower and his wild friends. 

He went over to the clover field and sat down 
in the corner of the stone fence where some bushes 
hid him from view. 

For some time nothing happened. Pretty soon 
he heard a queer thump! thump! thump! He 
looked up and there was old Father Wa-poose 
close beside him. He had come into the field so 
quietly that little Luke had not heard a sound. 


146 THE MAGIC SPEECH FLOWER 

“Hi! hi! there you are, Man-cub,” said the old 
rabbit.. “Now you sit very still, and you’ll see 
something worth seeing. Of course we are not 
really afraid of you, but if some of the young folks 
should see you, they might get nervous. I’ll just 
go out and get my supper, and when the fun 
begins I’ll come back and keep you company. 
I don’t care much for dancing. I leave that 
mostly to the young people.” 

Soon from all sides, rabbits came leaping over 
the fence into the field. There were young 
rabbits and old rabbits, big rabbits and little 
rabbits. 

Sometimes one of them would stop and thump 
the ground with his hind feet. This seemed to be 
a signal; for when one thumped, another would 
come hopping toward him. The two would touch 
noses and then turn to on the sweet, young clover, 
that had grown up since the July mowing. 

Their feast lasted for an hour or more. Then 
the fun began. Several of* them would hop close 
together in the centre of the field. Then they 
would skip slowly about in a sort of stately dance. 
Little by little the movement became faster and 


THE RABBIT DANCE 


147 


faster until they were spinning around like a pin- 
wheel in a brisk breeze. Round and round they 
went until it made little Luke’s head dizzy to 
watch them. 

Suddenly a rabbit stamped with his hind feet, 
— thump! thump! thump! Instantly every rabbit 
squatted motionless. It was a danger signal, but 
a false one. Nothing happened. 

Soon the fun began again. Several of the 
rabbits had a game of tag. Round and round 
they went, leaping ten feet or more at each bound. 
Sometimes in the midst of their race, one of them 
would take a sky-hop. Up straight into the air 
he would go as if he were trying to reach the 
moon. 

“Why do they do that?” asked little Luke of 
Father Wa-poose, who had come back and was 
sitting quietly beside him. 

“ They do that,” answered the old rabbit, “ to 
get a clear look all around them. You know we 
always have to be on the lookout for our foes.” 

Not far from little Luke two rabbits were hav- 
ing. a boxing match. They stood up to each 
other just like men. Little Luke could hear a 


148 THE MAGIC SPEECH FLOWER 

soft spat, spat, spat, as the blows went home. 
Their paws were so soft that the blows did not 
hurt and it was great fun. 

Suddenly thump ! thump ! thump ! sounded the 
danger signal again. Not for nothing this time! 
Ko-ko-ka the Great Owl came sailing over the 
clover field as silently as a ghost. But for all his 
great eyes, the old owl could not see a single 
rabbit. Neither could little Luke. 

“ Where have they all gone to ? ” he asked 
Father Wa-poose. 

“ Oh,” said he, “ they’re all there. So long as 
they sit perfectly still old Ko-ko-ka can’t see 
them.” 

“ Why didn’t they run away 1 ?” 
asked little Luke. 

“ What’s the use ?” replied the 
old rabbit ; “ so long as we know 
he is coming, we aren’t afraid of 
Ko-ko-ka. If he should swoop 
at one of them, he’d just give a 
bound and get out of danger. Old Ko-ko-ka 
can’t catch a rabbit who knows he’s coming. It’s 
the way he comes that makes us fear him. His 



THE RABBIT DANCE 


149 


wings are covered with down and do not make a 
sound. That’s the reason we all dread him so. 
Ugh ! I fairly shiver when I think of him. He 
nearly got me once. His sharp claws scratched 
my ears.” 

Ko-ko-ka was very hungry. He knew the 
rabbits were in that meadow, and hated to go off 
without one. While Wa-poose had been talking, 
he had been sailing slowly round the field. Now 
he was coming back again. 

As he flew over little Luke’s head he looked 
down. Perhaps he saw a slight movement as 
little Luke tried to look up at him. Instantly he 
swooped and his sharp claws struck the little boy’s 
hat. 

“ Hi, there ! ” said little Luke in astonishment. 
It was Ko-ko-ka’s turn to be astonished now. He 
dropped the hat, flapped his great wings, and 
floated off towards the woods. 

Little Luke left his hat where it fell and waited 
to see what the rabbits would do. After a short 
time the fun began again. There were two young 
ones that little Luke noticed in particular. They 
began their race in the middle of the field. Round 


150 THE MAGIC SPEECH FLOWER 

and round they went and each time round their 
circles became larger. 

Now on the other side of the clover field there 
was an open gap in the fence. All at once the 
danger signal sounded again. Thump ! thump ! 
thump! Again every rabbit squatted, with ears 
and eyes alert to catch sound or sight of an 
enemy. 

It was too late. Through the gate bounded a 
ball of reddish, yellow fur. Snap ! And the teeth 
of Kee-wuk the Red Fox had seized one of the 
young rabbits by the neck. Swinging the limp 
body over his shoulders, he trotted quietly off 
through the gap. 

That ended the fun. As they saw the Red 
Fox every rabbit sprang to his feet, and with a 
hop, skip, and jump went over the fence and out 
of the clover field. And little Luke saw them no 
more that night. 


XXVIII. WHY THE WILD FOLK NO LONGER 
TALK THE MAN-TALK 

Now in his talks with his wild friends little 
Luke noticed that they used many Indian words 
such as he had learned from Old John the Indian. 

“Why is it,” said he, one day to Wa-poose, 
“that you wild folk use so many of the Eed Men’s 
words?” 

“Well,” said the old rabbit, “that is a long 
story. But if you will sit down here beside me, I 
will tell you about it.” 

“In the first days,” said Wa-poose, “when the 
world was new, the men and the wild folk were 
much alike. They all spoke one language. 

“ In those days it was always summer. All the 
year round the grass was green and the flowers 
bloomed. Twelve times a year the vines and 
bushes and trees bore fresh blossoms, and twelve 
times a year they were loaded with ripe berries, 
fruits, and nuts. 


152 


THE MAGIC SPEECH FLOWER 


“ In those times there was no hunting and no 
killing. All the wild kindreds lived in peace with 
each other and with the Red Men, who then dwelt 
in this land. You see there was plenty to eat and 
the weather was so warm and pleasant that the 
Red Men did not need the skins of their wild 
brothers to keep them from the cold. 

“ But after a while a change came. Pe-boan 
the dreadful Winter King came down from the 
North and made war upon Ni-pon the Queen of 
Summer. After many battles peace was made 
and the year was divided; half the year was ruled 
by the Queen of Summer, and half by the Winter 
King. 

“Now it came to pass that after the war was 
over the vines and bushes and trees put forth their 
buds and blossomed and bore fruit but once a 
year. The Red Men and the wild kindreds 
suffered dreadfully from hunger, and their hearts 
became hard and cruel. Then the hunting and 
the killing began. The Red Men hunted many 
of the wild kindreds for their flesh and their fur, and 
the wild kindreds began to kill and devour each 
other. And so it has been since that day. 


WHY THE WILD FOLK NO LONGER TALK 153 

“In those times the Wa-poose folk were much 
larger than they are now, even as large as Mo- 
ween the Bear. But they refused to take part in 
the killing and flesh eating, and so they suffered 
more from hunger than some of the wild kindreds. 
Year by year, on account of the scarcity of food, 
the Wa-poose folk became smaller until they were 
as you see them now. 

“ In the beginning, as I have said, the Red Men 
and the wild kindreds spoke one language. Even 
to this day, the Red hunters have kept many of 
the watchwords of the wild folk, and by means 
of them are able to deceive and kill them. 

“ Now by reason of the great slaughter that 
was made by the Red Men, the wild kindreds 
gathered themselves together in a great council to 
discuss their condition. After much talk they 
decided to ask help of the Master of Life. 

“ ‘ There is but one way/ said he, when he 
had heard their story, ‘you must change your 
speech. Then the Red Men will no longer be 
able to deceive you so easily and slay so many 
of you/ 

“ The wild folk did as the Master of Life told 


154 


THE MAGIC SPEECH FLOWER 


them to do. They changed their language, and 
refused to speak any longer with the Red Men. 
But some of the Red Men’s words they have kept 
to this day, and that is why you hear us use them.” 


XXIX. THE TALE OF SUN-KA THE WISE DOG 

One day Old John the Indian came down the 
trail to the farmhouse. He was on his way to 
town to sell some baskets. As Uncle Mark was 
going to town with the team, he invited him to 
ride. Since the town was several miles away, the 
old Indian gladly accepted the invitation, leaving 
Ke-ha-ga his old hound at the farmhouse. 

In the afternoon little Luke was sitting on the 
fence when old Ke-ha-ga came over to him. Put- 
ting his front paws on top of the fence, he licked 
the little boy’s hand. 

“ Hello, Ke-ha-ga,” said little Luke, “ so you 
have come out to see me, have you? Can’t you 
tell me a story ? ” lie added as he gently patted the 
old hound’s head. 

“ What kind of a story do you want?” asked 
the old dog. 

“ Oh, most any kind will do,” said the boy. 
“Tell me a story about some dog of the olden 
days, — the days before the white men came to this 
country.” 



156 THE MAGIC SPEECH FLOWER 

“Very well,” said Ke-ha-ga, “I’ll tell you a 
legend that my grandfather told to me when I 
was a puppy.” And he began the following tale. 


“ Many winters ago there was a wise dog whose 
name was Sun-ka. He lived with an old Indian 
woman. Now Sun-ka was a good hunter, and 
often brought home to the lodge rabbits and other 
small animals which he had hunted and caught by 
himself. 

“ But his mistress was a bad, greedy old woman. 
She took all the game which he brought, and used 


THE TALE OF SUN-KA THE WISE DOG 157 

it for herself. What she could not eat at once, 
she dried and put away for another time. To 
Sun-ka she gave only the bones and other poor 
scraps, so that most of the time he was half 
starved. 

“ At last there came a season when game was 
very scarce. The old woman, it 4 is true, had 
plenty of dried meat in her wigwam, but she 
gave none of it to Sun-ka. He almost died of 
starvation. 

“ At last he said to himself, ‘ Why should that 
old woman have plenty to eat, and I scarcely any- 
thing at all ? Most of the meat which she has 
hidden in her lodge, I caught for her myself. It 
is as much mine as it is hers. Since she will not 
give me my share of it, 111 just take it without 
asking her.’ 

“ But the old woman was very watchful. When 
Sun-ka tried to get the meat, she beat him over 
the head with a club until he ran away yelping 
with pain. 

“ The next morning one of his dog friends came 
to visit him. ‘ Good morning, Sun-ka,’ said he, 
but Sun-ka made no reply. Indeed, his head was 


158 THE MAGIC SPEECH FLOWER 

so swelled from the blows he had received, that 
he could hardly open his mouth. 

“ ‘Well, well/ said his friend, after looking him 
over carefully, ‘you seem to be in a sad case. 
What has happened to you ] ’ 

“ ‘ Oh/ replied Sun-ka, speaking with difficulty, 
‘ I tried to get my share of the meat, which my 
mistress has in her lodge, and she beat me for it. 
She beat me till I am stiff and sore, and can 
scarcely move/ 

“ ‘ Well/ said his friend, ‘ I wouldn’t stand it if 
I were you. The meat is just as much yours as it 
is hers. You caught most of it yourself and you 
helped her to catch the rest of it. I’ll tell you 
what we’ll do ; we’ll pay her off for it. I’ll go and 
call our friends ; I’ll call Rainmaker, Stillbiter, 
Strongneck, and Sharptootli.’ And so he did. 

“ Rainmaker caused it to rain, and it rained all 
the day through until dark, and when it was dark 
it was very dark. Then Stillbiter crept up softly 
to the lodge and bit off all the thongs which fas- 
tened the covering to the lodge poles. 

“ When this was done, Strongneck crept in and 
seized the meat and carried it away. Then Sharp- 


THE TALE OF SUN-KA THE WISE DOG 159 

tooth ripped open the bag which held the meat, 
and before morning the six dogs ate it all up. 

“ When the meat was all gone, Sun-ka ran 
away and became a wild dog. What became of 
the old Indian woman I do not know.” 

“ Served her right,” said the little boy. “ If she 
hadn’t been so stingy with her meat, she wouldn’t 
have lost it. And Sun-ka would have stayed with 
her to help catch more.” 


XXX. HOW THE DOG’S TONGUE BECAME LONG 


It was hot. Little Luke sat on the doorstep 
in the shade. Over in the pasture Old Boze the 
Hound gave tongue. He was at his favorite sport 
of trailing rabbits all by himself. He really didn’t 
have any spite against the rabbits, but when he 
struck a fresh trail, he felt that he just must follow 
it. And when he had puzzled out a balk or break 
in the trail, he couldn’t for the life of him keep 
still. 

But it was really too hot for trailing, especially 
when there was nothing in it but fun. The old 
hound would have stuck to it longer if Sam the 
hired man had been around somewhere, hiding 
behind the bushes with his thundering fire-stick. 
Old Boze wasn’t afraid of the fire-stick. He liked 
to hear it roar, and see the poor rabbits fall before 
its deadly breath. 

Well, after a while he gave it up and came back 
to the house. Going around to the doorstep, he 
lay down on the cool porch with his head close 


HOW THE DOG’S TONGUE BECAME LONG 161 

to the little boy’s shoulder. He was tired, and his 
dripping tongue hung far out from his open mouth. 
The little boy looked at it. 

“ Old Boze,” said he, “what a long tongue you 
have. Why is it that dogs have such long 
tongues'?”. 

Old Boze shifted his eyes uneasily and looked 
the other way, but said nothing. 

“ Come, now,” said the little boy, “ I am sure 
there is a story about that long, red tongue of 
yours.” 

“To be sure there is,” said a voice that came 
from just behind the boy’s ear. He looked around 
and there was Old Klaws the House Cat. 

“ What do you know about it?” asked the little 
boy. 

“ Oh, I know all about it,” answered the old cat. 
“ But ask Old Boze,” he went on with a grin, 
“ perhaps he’ll tell you.” 

Old Boze got up slowly and with dignity. “ I 
am too tired to tell stories,” said he, “ but I’m not 
too tired to shake the foolishness out of a cat.” 

“ Here now,” said the little boy, “ no quarreling 
and fighting. I won’t have it. And Klaws shall 


162 


THE MAGIC SPEECH FLOWER 


tell me that story about your long, red tongue, if 
he will.” 

“ To be sure I will,” said Old Klaws, delighted 
to be able to tease Old Boze safely. Of course 
there was another time coming when little Luke 
might not be at hand, but then the old- cat trusted 
to speed and sharp claws to put himself up a tree 
and out of the reach of the old hound. 

“ All right,” said Old Boze, “ if you’re fond of 
the company of a sneaking, mouse-eating, old 
tabby, I’m not. I’ll take myself off. But my 
memory is good,” he added, glancing at Old 
Klaws with a snarl that showed all his sharp, 
white teeth. 

“Well, now for the story,” said the little boy, 
when Old Boze w 7 as out of sight around the 
corner. 

“ Long, long ago,” began Old Klaws, “ when 
all the animal kindreds could talk the man-talk, 
the dogs were the greatest telltales in the world. 
They told everything they knew, and sometimes 
a great deal more. Their masters often flogged 
them for tattling, but it did little or no good. 

“ In those days there was a great hunter whose 


HOW THE DOG’S TONGUE BECAME LONG 163 

name was Man-e-do. He wanted a dog to help 
him hunt, but he did not want a tattletale. So 
he took a fine, young pup, and tried to bring him 
up to be a good hunter and to keep his tongue. 
He took good care of him. He often told him 
how foolish it was to tell everything he knew. 
The pup would promise not to tattle, but he was 
only a dog, and blood will tell after all. 

“ When the pup was big enough, his master 
took him with him when he went hunting for small 
game. The dog was a good trailer by this time, 
and together they killed many rabbits and other 
small animals. 

“But when they went home, the dog couldn’t 
hold his tongue. He would brag to the other 
dogs, and tell them what a great hunter he was, 
and how at such and such a place he had caught 
the biggest rabbits that ever were seen. Then 
the other dogs would lead their masters to those 
places and clear them of game. Whenever Man- 
e-do went to a place a second time, he found no 
game there. 

“ Besides, if they were hunting near the village 
and made a kill, the dog would pretend to go off 


164 


THE MAGIC SPEECH FLOWER 


after more game. But wlien he was out of sight of 
his master, he would run home and tell some of his 
chums about his kill. Then the other dogs and 
their masters would come out and kill or scare 
away all the game there was in that place. 
Many times Man-e-do caught the dog tattling, 
and scolded and beat him for it, but it did no 
good. He just couldn’t keep anything to himself. 

“One time Man-e-do went off on a long hunt. 
He took three horses and traveled several days 
before making his camp. He thought he would 
get so far away that the dog could not go back to 
the village and tattle. 

“While hunting in the mountains near his 
camp, he found a valley which was full of game. 
There he made many kills, and soon had all the 
meat his three horses could possibly carry. 

“ ‘ To-morrow,’ said he to his dog, ‘we will start 
for home. When we get there, you must keep 
your tongue in your mouth. You must not tell 
where we have been. If the other hunters do 
not find our valley, we can come back at any 
time and get all the meat we want.’ 

“ ‘All right,’ said the dog, ‘I’ll keep the secret.’ 


HOW THE DOG’S TONGUE BECAME LONG 165 

“ ‘ See that you do,’ added his master; ‘ for if 
you don’t, I’ll make you sorry for it.’ 

“ The next morning they started for home. 
That night they camped beside a brook. At 
daybreak Man-e-do arose and made ready to 
start, but the dog was nowhere to be seen. 

“ ‘ Where can he be?’ said he to himself. 
‘ Surely he has not gone home to the village.’ 
You see, he thought that at last he had broken 
the dog of his tattling. Why then should he go 
on ahead? 

“ So he turned about and went back to his 
camp near the valley. The dog was not there. 
‘ Perhaps,’ thought he, ‘a bear or a panther has 
killed him.’ 

“ So he turned about and went home to his 
wigwam alone. There he found the dog as well 
as ever. He had been home a long time, and 
told all he knew about the valley of game and 
more too. According to his stories, he and his 
master had killed more game than had ever been 
seen before, and there was plenty more in the 
valley yet. All the hunters in the village were 
getting ready to go there to hunt. 


166 THE MAGIC SPEECH FLOWER 

“ Man-e-do was very angry. He caught the 
dog, and gave him the worst whipping any dog 
ever had. ‘ 111 stop your tattling/ said he. And 
he caught the dog by the tongue and pulled it 
nearly out of his mouth. Then he shoved a 
round stick back into his mouth and tied his 
mouth shut over it. 

“He left the stick there for a long time. 
When he took it out, the dog’s mouth was larger, 
and his tongue longer than any dog’s mouth and 
tongue had ever been before. 

“ Since that time, all dogs have had big 
mouths and long tongues. 

“But,” added Old Ivlaws, “they don’t tattle as 
much as they did before.” 

While Old Klaws had been telling this story, 
Old Boze had been lying in the shade and resting. 
After a while, he thought to himself, “I’ll give that 
old mouser a scare and I’ll do it before little Luke 
can hinder me.” 

So he got up and walked silently around to the 
corner of the porch. With one foot raised, he 
stopped scarcely three feet from Old Klaws, who 
was sitting on the end of the top step. 


HOW THE DOG’S TONGUE BECAME LONG 167 

Just as the old cat finished his story, Old Boze 
sprang toward him with a loud, “Bow-wow-wow.” 
The old cat bounded as if he were made of India-rub- 
ber of the best quality. Such a cat-jump the little 
boy had never seen before. The first leap carried 
Old Klaws far out on the garden walk, and in the 
twinkling of an eye he was among the topmost 
branches of the old pear tree. When he felt him- 
self safe, he turned round and began to spit and 
snarl and say bad words at Old Boze, who was 
looking at him with his long tongue hanging out 
of his mouth, and his face all wrinkled up into a 
broad grin. 

Little Luke had jumped almost as lively as Old 
Klaws, but when he saw who it was and took in 
the old cat's language, and the old dog's funny 
looking face, he lay down on the porch and 
laughed till the tears came. 



XXXI. THE STORY OF THE FAITHFUL DOG 

“ Dear Old Boze,” said the little boy, after the 
fun was over, “ can’t you tell me a story of the old 
days?” 

“Yes,” replied the old hound, “I can. And 
since Old Klaws has told you about one dog, I’ll 
tell you about another.” 

“ Once upon a time,” went on the old hound, 
“ there was an Indian hunter who had a dog that 
he loved very dearly. And the dog on his part 
loved his master more than his own life. 

“For many years, master and dog hunted to- 


THE STORY OF THE FAITHFUL DOG 169 

getlier. When night came they ate of the same 
food, and shared the same bed. Many and many 
a time, each saved the life of the other. At last 
both began to grow old. 

“ One morning in winter a stranger entered 
their lodge. ‘ I am the Man-i-tou of Death,’ said 
he to the hunter. ‘ The Master of Life has sent 
me to summon you to the Happy Hunting Ground. 
Make ready at once, for when the sun rises for 
the third time, you must set forth.’ 

“‘It is well,’ replied the hunter, ‘the summons 
shall be obeyed.’ 

“ At once he began to make ready. He danced 
the death dance and sang the death song. His 
wife and his two sons mourned and wept, and the 
dog joined in the death chant. 

“ On the third morning, the hunter was ready 
to depart on the long journey from which he 
could never return. 

“ ‘ Alas, my husband,’ said his wife, ‘ I cannot 
live without you. I will go with you. Where 
you are, there will I be also.’ And so also said 
his two sons. 

“The hunter tried to comfort them, and to per- 


170 


TEE MAGIC SPEECH FLOWER 


suade tnem to remain until they too should be 
summoned by the Master of Life. But they 
refused to be comforted, and at last they all set 
forth. 

“ Meanwhile the dog had said nothing. But 
when they started, he was close at the heels of 
his master. 

“ Day after aay they traveled toward the south- 
west. After a time, they entered a desert land, 
where water was scarce and there was no game. 
Soon they began to’ be hungry as well as weary. 

“ The younger boy’s strength and courage gave 
out, and he turned and followed the trail back to 
the wigwam. 

“ A little farther, and the older son said, 4 Alas, 
my father, I am famished, and my strength has 
gone from me. I will return and seek my 
younger brother. When I have found him and 
we have rested and eaten, we will come and 
overtake you.’ So he turned back, and that was 
the last that was seen of him. 

44 Seeing that her children had turned back, 
the wife said, 4 Be of good courage. I am 
still with you. I am strong and we shall yet 


THE STORY OF THE FAITHFUL DOG 171 

enter the gate of the Happy Hunting Grounds 
together/ 

“The dog said nothing, but though he was 
hungry, footsore, and weary, he still followed 
close at his master’s heels. 

“Now the trail entered a region of desolate 
mountains. The way became rough and rocky. 
Their moccasins were worn from their feet, and 
there was no food to be found. 

“‘At last the wife cried, ‘Oh, my husband, 
I am faint and weary. I can go no further. 
Let us rest here.’ And she sat down beside the 
trail. 

“ * Nay/ said the hunter, ‘ I may not stop. The 
Master of Life must be obeyed. The summons 
was not to you, but to me. Rest here beside the 
trail, and when your strength has returned, go 
back to the wigwam and dwell with our two sons 
until the Death Man-i-tou comes for you.’ 

“ Then he went on, up the steep trail. He 
had not noticed the dog, who, footsore and fam- 
ished, now limped painfully at his heels, and when 
he camped for the night, came silently and lay 
down at his feet. 


172 


THE MAGIC SPEECH FLOWER 


“ The next morning, they arose and continued 
their journey. After many days, they saw far 
before them a narrow gap between two tall 
snow-capped mountains. Through this the trail 
went, and at the further end they found the 
gateway to the Happy Hunting Ground. Be- 
side the gateway stood the lodge of the keeper 
of the gate. 

“ Before the lodge the hunter stopped and lifted 
up his voice, and cried, ‘ The Master of Life called. 
Here am I.’ 

“ Hearing his cry, the keeper of the gate came 
from his lodge. 

“‘You are welcome/ said he to the hunter, 
‘but where are those who set out upon the long 
trail with you? ’ 

“‘They are not here/ returned the hunter, ‘the 
way was long and toilsome, and their feet grew 
weary/ 

“ ‘ Who is that/ again asked the keeper of the 
gate, ‘ who stands beside you, and looks upon you 
with eyes of love % ’ 

“ ‘ That is he/ said the hunter, ‘ who loved me 
best of all/ 


THE STORY OF THE FAITHFUL DOG 173 

“ ‘ His great love and his faithfulness have made 
him worthy/ said the keeper of the gate. ‘He 
shall enter with you/ and he opened the gate. 

“With a bark of joy the dog sprang forward 
and entered the Happy Hunting Ground beside 
the master whom he had loved more than his own 
life.” 







THE HORACE MANN READERS 

By Walter L. Hervey, Ph.D., Member of Board 
of Examiners, New York City; formerly President of 
Teachers College; and Melvin Hix, B.S., Principal of 
Public School No. 9, Long Island City, New York City. 

A new series of basal readers shaped by these controlling 
ideas : personal interest on the part of children in the doings 
of children of their own age; personal hunger for stories 
having continuity, development and variety; and the devel- 
opment of a personal power of satisfying the literary appe- 
tite. The stories, dialogues, poems, and other selections, 
are almost entirely of new material. 

This material is varied , and was selected because of its 
intrinsic interest — action, appeal to self-activity. The les- 
sons are not mere collections of words and sentences, but 
have continuity of thought. The pictures, being adapted to 
the text , are distinct aids in teaching children to read. The 
helps to teachers are varied, time-saving, practical. The 
method is simple, effective, original. 

Each book is fully illustrated with black and white pic- 
tures and several colored illustrations. 

Primer $.30 Manual for Teachers (Daily Lesson 

First Reader 32 Plans) $ .75 

Second Reader 40 Phonogram Cards — Primer Set, 

Third Reader 48 26 cards 25 

Fourth Reader 55 Word Cards— Primer Set, 130 cards 1.25 

Fifth Reader (Preparing) .... Phonogram Cards — First Reader 

Sixth Reader (Preparing) .... Set, 115 Cards 1.00 

Daily Lesson Plans is the teacher’s manual for the first 
year’s work with The Horace Mann Readers. Every step 
of each day’s lesson is planned and explained. The direc- 
tions given are intended to be so definite, so complete and 
so practical, that comparatively inexperienced teachers may 
be able to follow them with excellent results; while in the 
hands of the experienced teacher it is hoped that it will be 
of much accommodation in following the progress of the work. 

The manual for the remainder of the series is in preparation. 


LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO., Publishers 

FOURTH AVENUE AND THIRTIETH ST., NEW YORK 


FEATURES OF 

THE HORACE MANN READERS 

The Horace Mann Readers are highly organized — words 
being developed into independent yet mutually related 
parts; different stories being related to other stories; the 
vocabulary of one lesson being related to the vocabulary of 
the lessons preceding and the lessons following; a system of 
phonics complete in itself and yet organically related to the 
reading matter. 

The principle of self-activity is carefully developed. 

The action rhymes given impress the children and give 
variety to the reading lesson. But since reading isn’t all 
poetry, all other phases of sound methods of teaching are 
employed. Especial attention is called to the system of 
phonics developed. It is rational and wonderfully effective. 

The Theory of Multiple Sense Appeal is carefully applied. 
Every avenue of approach has been taken — the eye, the 
hand, the ear — all are used to make the appeal broader 
and more interesting. No sound psychological precept has 
been omitted. 

The Horace Mann Readers have successfully combined all 
the approved methods of teaching reading. 

The material is new and varied. The books contain clear 
and vivid images, whole situations and self activity, which 
appeals to the child. They also afford the teacher every 
possible suggestion and convenience in respect to method. 

Daily Lesson Plans, the teacher’s manual for these readers, 
gives minute directions for each day’s lesson. 


LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO., Publishers 

FOURTH AVENUE AND THIRTIETH ST., NEW YORK 


APPRECIATIVE LETTERS ABOUT 

THE HORACE MANN READERS 

“I like particularly the long story element. I never did 
like ‘hash’ in a reading book. I like also the narratives 
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teacher.” — E. M. Sherry, County Supt., Rolla, N. D. 

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adapted to the literary development of the children in the 
class. They recite the poems and tell the stories, and alto- 
gether we are having a very good time.” — Miss Winifred 
G. Jones, The Greenwich Academy, Greenwich, Conn. 

“It is a pleasure to recommend the Horace Mann Readers. 
The ' books are full of interest, in keeping with the best 
results for teachers and pupils. We enjoy them in our school, 
Troy’s largest Grammar School.” — Miss Annie A. Green, 
Grammar School No. 1 4, Troy, N. Y. 

“The Primer is a favorite with teacher and pupils. The 
literary merit of the stories used is high. The vocabulary 
is such as will open many books to the child, and the frequent 
repetition of words I consider excellent.” — Miss Alice M. 
Johnston, Calhoun School, Minneapolis, Minn. 


LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO., Publishers 

FOURTH AVENUE AND THIRTIETH ST., NEW YORK 



PHONOGRAM CARDS 

FOR USE WITH 

THE HORACE MANN READERS 

i 

Designed for Rapid Phonic Drills 
and for Rapid Word Building 

The object of these drills is to train pupils so that the sight of the phonogram will 
cause an immediate, correct, and automatic vocal response; while the word building 
will develop s\ill in uniting or “ blending ” readily and correctly the different phonic 


elements of which words are composed. 

THE PRIMER SET 

26 CARDS IN A STOUT MANILA ENVELOPE - -- -- --25 CENTS 

THE FIRST READER SET 

115 CARDS IN PASTEBOARD CASE - -- -- -- -- -- $i.oo 


WORD -CARDS 

FOR USE WITH 

THE HORACE MANN PRIMER 

Designed for Rapid Word -Drill or Flash 
Reading, and for Rapid Sentence Drills 

The object of these word-drills is to secure instantaneous automatic Word recognition with 
rapidity and promptness as the foundations of success ; while the sentence drills, if 
properly conducted, will train pupils to grasp instantly the total meaning of groups of 
related words. 

130 CARDS IN PASTEBOARD CASE --$1.25 

LONGMANS, GREEN, & COMPANY, Publishers 

FOURTH AVENUE & 3OTH STREET, NEW YORK 





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